Posted in FAQs
RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. For a detailed, technical answer, click here. From an end-user point of view, what RSS allows you to do is take syndicated content, like headlines from your favorite online newspaper or recent posts from your favorite blogger and add them to a custom interface, such as the very intuitive and user-friendly Personalized Google page. Content by RSS is called a feed and there are feed readers, like Google Reader that allow you to grab all of your feeds at once and view them. This will save you time if you're used to going to more than a few different sites to pull in all of your information.
An RSS feed can be used in other ways, too. Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client, which is like Outlook Express, but better, allows you to create an RSS folder that lets you see all the RSS feeds at a glance and read them like you would your e-mail. Every time you open your e-mail, it will pull the latest data from each of the sources for you to read when you want and when you've read it, it takes away the bold so you know you've seen it. You can even create several different folders, like one for news, one for weather or sports, and even one for news from Sioux Falls, if you're interested. Just follow the help files with your e-mail client to set it up.
XML is short for eXtensible Markup Language. If RSS is the car, XML is the engine. You can take an engine from an Oldsmobile and put it in a Chevy. The car looks different and handles different, but the power and substance of the car is in the engine. People use the XML button to point to the XML code used for driving the feed. The actual creation of the file is determined by the publisher (the blogger, author, or webmaster) of the site. Although clients can change how their RSS client (like Thunderbird or Google Reader) displays the content, choices whether the feed shows the full content or just a summary is left up to the publisher.
Why do some bloggers chose just a summary? Well, because they want people to get interested and come to their blog to read their content. This is valuable for those displaying ads on their site because it boosts their "impressions" or times ads are displayed to a viewer.
I've added my blog to Feedburner. What that means is you can get Walden's Wits in your favorite feed reader simply by clicking on this feed icon:
Pretty nifty, huh?
You don't want to use a feed reader? No problem. Feedburner will send you an old fashioned e-mail with my posts if you subscribe using the very simple subscription box in the right column under Feeds & FAQs. Complete the anti-spam safeguard and you're all set to get my incoherent meanderings by e-mail.
Questions? E-mail me using the link at right under The Usual Links.
More information on syndicated feeds
An RSS feed can be used in other ways, too. Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client, which is like Outlook Express, but better, allows you to create an RSS folder that lets you see all the RSS feeds at a glance and read them like you would your e-mail. Every time you open your e-mail, it will pull the latest data from each of the sources for you to read when you want and when you've read it, it takes away the bold so you know you've seen it. You can even create several different folders, like one for news, one for weather or sports, and even one for news from Sioux Falls, if you're interested. Just follow the help files with your e-mail client to set it up.
XML is short for eXtensible Markup Language. If RSS is the car, XML is the engine. You can take an engine from an Oldsmobile and put it in a Chevy. The car looks different and handles different, but the power and substance of the car is in the engine. People use the XML button to point to the XML code used for driving the feed. The actual creation of the file is determined by the publisher (the blogger, author, or webmaster) of the site. Although clients can change how their RSS client (like Thunderbird or Google Reader) displays the content, choices whether the feed shows the full content or just a summary is left up to the publisher.
Why do some bloggers chose just a summary? Well, because they want people to get interested and come to their blog to read their content. This is valuable for those displaying ads on their site because it boosts their "impressions" or times ads are displayed to a viewer.
I've added my blog to Feedburner. What that means is you can get Walden's Wits in your favorite feed reader simply by clicking on this feed icon:
Pretty nifty, huh? You don't want to use a feed reader? No problem. Feedburner will send you an old fashioned e-mail with my posts if you subscribe using the very simple subscription box in the right column under Feeds & FAQs. Complete the anti-spam safeguard and you're all set to get my incoherent meanderings by e-mail.
Questions? E-mail me using the link at right under The Usual Links.
More information on syndicated feeds
