The Besty: RSS

Many of you have mentioned "visiting" my blog "from time to time" and enough of you have said it that I feel compelled to share with you a wonderful tidbit of technology: the RSS reader. What is it? Well, my friend Sarah Jo Austin (@sarahjoaustin) described it so well, I'll let her explain it to you:

I use RSS, and you should, too. That is the theme of today’s post, so I’ll be laying the peer pressure on pretty thick.

So what exactly is RSS? Well, it stands for really simple syndication. By using an application called a reader and adding subscriptions from your favorite news sites and blogs (hmm…A Fool of Myself [and Excellent Adventure] comes to mind), the new content from those sites comes to you in your reader. You no longer have to remember all the sites you frequently read, go to them, and hope for new content; if a site has been updated, the new content will appear in your reader. (Come on. Everyone is doing it.)

Still confused? Watch this little video produced by CommonCraft.com to see how you can start using RSS within minutes. I would have made my own video, but I hate reinventing the wheel, and this one is super easy to understand:

Click To Play

To summarize the video, to get started with RSS, you need a reader (e.g. Google Reader, NewsGator, Bloglines, My Yahoo!, etc.). Once you have a reader, add subscriptions to your account by looking for and clicking on the orange RSS logo. That’s it! Just start reading! (I’m going to tell everyone how lame you are for not using RSS!)

Thaks, Sarah!

Here's a screen shot of my RSS reader. I use Google Reader because I already had a gmail address when I signed up - and I'd recommend getting a Google account if you don't have one!


You can see

• blogs I follow in the left hand column (which I categorize further by friends/foodie/ministry, etc.)
  
• some of the posts from those blogs in the middle (this is the "home" view)
  
• recommended blogs (based on who I follow already), recently read items, recently starred items (things you want to come back to - great for craft ideas, recipes, etc!) on the right.
  

If you look closely at the left column again, you'll see some people there - Google Reader allows you to share items with your friends who also use Google Reader. If you see a funny video, click "share" below the post (not shown) and it will be shared with all of those people. You can also add comments about why you shared the item (if you choose) and make comments on what other people share. Very fun! (I envision some of you ladies making a "scrapping" group and sharing ideas amongst yourselves - fun!)

Another added bonus: if you have an iPhone, you can log in and read everything there --a great and productive use of dead time!

Anyway, that's my attempt at making your busy lives easier. Hope you'll try it. Post any questions or concerns you have in the comments section. Happy RSS'ing!