Recently, I gave a small presentation about RSS at my office, and here's what I had to say:
Imagine that when your friends want to send you an email, they compose the email and then keep it in their own mail box. They don't send it to your mail box. Then, when you want to check your emails, imagine that you have to visit each of your friend's mail boxes to see if they have left any mails for you. That's just a very inefficient and backwards way of doing things, isn't it? Yet, this is exactly how we access information on the Internet. We go to different websites individually, and check if there is information there which might be of interest to us.
This is where RSS technology and RSS Readers come into the picture. Google calls its RSS Reader, "Your inbox to the web." It literally is. I have been using Google Reader for the past few months, and I am absolutely hooked. It helps me go through a lot of content very quickly. Of course, I give more time and attention to some content, than to others. Nevertheless, the amount of information I eyeball in a short period of time is just insane. I could never peruse so much information without my favorite Reader.
To subscribe to this blog's feed and open Google Reader at the same time, click here.
Here's a previous post on this blog about RSS: Web Feeds and Feed Readers.
Here's a a 10-minute video tutorial on using Google Reader (but seriously you could learn how to use it in lesser time on your own!):
Posts
LL,
ReplyDeleteYou have waxed eloquent about RSS feeds and google reader that I actually listened to the 10 min tutorial.
But I just wondered-(and since am no tech geek, the question might be variously construed as facile or puerile!) aren't there security risks associated with subscribing to RSS feeds?Also are there any privacy issues?
S
S,
ReplyDeleteThere are no more security risks or privacy issues associated with subscribing to RSS feeds of websites, than there is in actually visiting those sites on a browser.
However, do note that if you use Google Reader, Google will know everything about the feeds you are subscribed to, as well as your reading habits and browsing patterns of those feeds.
Hope that helps.
LL