Continued from part I.

When you subscribe in a RSS/feed reader for the first time, it will usually show the first 10 latests posts by default.

Using the browser to subscribe

Subscribing to a RSS feed is easy, now that most latest browsers support it as well. Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, Opera, and Safari (Mac) all has different methods of subscribing to RSS via their product. In this example I’ll show you what it looks like in Mozilla Firefox (since that’s the only browser I use). Take note that Mozilla Firefox also has a built in aggregator, and its called Live Bookmarks.

1. First go to a site that shows a RSS icon on the far right of the address bar. It can be a news site or a blog.
   
2. Click the RSS icon. Yes it is clickable, and it is the same for other browsers (?). After you clicked on it, it will show you a page that looks like this. Select Live Bookmarks.
   
   Click on the subscribe now button
3. You will notice that if you added it to your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder, it will show you a Live Bookmark of the recent posts at the site you subscribed.
   
4. So that’s how you add RSS to your Mozilla Firefox browser. But I don’t really recommend using this one because; (1) you cannot access it in any other location except on the computer you added it; (2) it becomes really messy if the entries get too long.

Subscribe to Google Reader

1. First go to a site that shows a RSS icon on the far right of the address bar. It can be a news site or a blog.
   
2. Click the RSS icon. Yes it is clickable, and it is the same for other browsers (?). After you clicked on it, it will show you a page that looks like this. Select Google.
   
   Click on the subscribe now button
3. Then on the next page, you can either choose Google Homepage or Google Reader. The homepage is good when you have a few RSS feeds that are composed of news because it will look pretty much like a newspaper. See iGoogle. But I recommend you use Google Reader specially if you will gonna add a lot of news and blog sites. It is much organized and getting around is easier.
   
4. Next login to your Google Account. If you have an account in one of Google’s services like Gmail, Orkut, ADsense, Bookmarks, Notebook, Analytics, or Blogger you can use that to login to Google. If you don’t have a Google account yet, just create a new one.
   
5. After you logged in, you will arrive inside Google Reader and the blog/site you subscribed to is now live inside your reader.
   
6. After that you can assign it to a folder (tag) so that your feeds are organized. You can see some of my subscriptions here and here. This is what my Google Reader now looks like, since I’m subscribed to 205 sites, more than 1,000+ new entries arrive each day.
   

Another way to quickly add a feed to your Google Reader is by clicking the Add Subscription.

Other RSS/feed Readers

If you don’t want to use Google Reader as your RSS aggregator, you can use other popular services provided by other companies. Wiki has a list of other RSS aggregators for you to use.

Another RSS aggregator I use is the client-based FeedReader. It is a free, open-sourced, feed reader you can install to your PC. You can read the feeds while online, and you can also read the already downloaded feed while offline.

Other popular RSS aggregators that are web-based:
Bloglines
Netvibes
My Yahoo!
Live.com

How about you what is the feed reader you use?

Next, I will post a list of sites and blogs I’m subscribed to. Maybe you’ll find something interesting to add to yours as well.

This is just part 2 of a series of posts. Visit here regularly for the continuation, or check your feed reader.

Tags: feed reader, feeds, Google reader, rss, rss reader

Before we get started, I’d like to ask you the following questions first:

• Do you like reading other peoples blogs?
• Do you regularly visit news blogs everyday to get you updated on what’s happening?
• On a single day, you visit a blog site as much as you visit a social networking site?
• At least one of your friend owns a blog site?
• Do you wish that the information you want comes to you instead of searching for it?

If most, or all, of your answer to the above question is yes then welcome RSS to your browser. But first, what is RSS? According to Wikipedia:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.

The image above is the logo for RSS. When you visit a website, a blog, or blog site that has an icon like this then you can subscribe to its RSS/atom feed. This blog site (my personal blog) has an RSS feed. If you are viewing this on Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 (or newer browsers) you can see the orange RSS icon that is usually located on the right side of the URL.

Not to be confused by a websites favicon. The favicon of a website appears on the left of the URL while the RSS icon appears (depends on the browser) on the right. Here is an example to know if a website has an RSS feed. The screenshots below are from Mozilla Firefox browser.

On this site the site’s favicon is the head of a phoenix (on the left) and the RSS feed icon on the right.

On my other blog site (tambayan.ph) I used a red RSS icon as a favicon (on the left), and the regular (orange) RSS feed icon appears on the right.

Take note however that there are sites that don’t have an RSS feed on them. In short you cannot subscribe to its feeds, well not directly anyway.

What is subscribing?

Subscribing to a feed (RSS or atom) means that you load a website’s feed into an aggregator. Some also calls it “RSS reader” or “feed reader”. When you subscribe to a feed, the new posts of a blog site automatically comes to your reader, instead of you going to the website itself, thus saving you time. If you are visiting, for example, 5 blogs/sites per day just to see if they have a new post, it is time consuming because you have to open the websites every time you want to check for new entries. But if you subscribe to the 5 blogs using your feed reader, you will have to visit only a single site, then all new posts (if any) from those 5 blogs will automatically come to you, instead of wasting time visiting and checking the source website every time.

Currently I have 205 subscriptions in my RSS/feed reader (I use Google Reader). That means I’m subscribed to at least 205 blogs, blog sites, and websites. The topics ranges from computer related blogs to entertainment. I’m also subscribed to blogs related to gaming, anime, media, technology, gadgets, trivias, computer security, news blogs, and of course my friends blogs. Recently, I removed at least a dozen or so blogs from my subscription because; (1) they are not updating much, and (2) the topic they post are of little interest to me.

RSS readers (subscribing to a feed) makes it easy for you to get updated on what ever is happening everywhere. Whether it’s a news of event from the other side of the world or the latest rant of your friend, RSS feeds make it easier for you to receive that news in a single web page. But I have to warn you though, RSS reader is really addictive. The first time I used it, I found myself reading for more than 5 hours and that was when I was only subscribed to at least a hundred feeds.

Next, I will discuss on subscribing to a reader. But if you are already reading this post in a feed reader then good for you. (^_^)

This is just part 1 of a series of posts. Visit here regularly for the continuation, or check your feed reader.

Tags: feed reader, feeds, Google reader, rss, rss reader