My apologies to the 3 awesome people who have subscribed to my feed already, but I wanted to do a quick rundown of what RSS is and how to watch feeds. You tech-savvy watchers can ignore this post.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” and that’s not a lie. It really is simple. All you have to know is that subscribing to RSS feeds will make your life easier because you won’t have to visit your favorite sites and obsessively refresh them anymore. All the posts can be delivered to you, in one place.
I use Google Reader as my RSS reader because, let’s face it, Google rocks at everything, and because it’s online so I can access it from any computer. This guide is going to be about how to add feeds to Google Reader, mainly, but the principles apply to all RSS readers.
Once you navigate to the blog/website of your choice, find the RSS icon in your browser. It’s always orange, squarish, with waves in it. In Firefox, it’s on the right-hand side of the location bar:
In Internet Explorer, the icon is underneath the search box on the right-hand side:
(But Internet Explorer has a fuggin’ weird way of handling feeds. It basically adds them to your “favorites” list. If you are okay with that, cool. If you’d like to add the feed to Google Reader, you’ll have to work a little harder; this guide should cover it for you.)
Anyway, back to Firefox. Click on the RSS icon and choose whichever option you’d like. The first one will usually be the one you want. It will take you to a page where you will choose what to subscribe with. Choose “Google,” and voila! The feed is in Google Reader. What does it look like when one person has far too many feeds? Well, let me show you.
The folder with all my sex blogs and stuff in it is called “seqs.” It’s my little way of being stealthy.
So now that you know how to subscribe to RSS feeds, go find some to subscribe to! Might I suggest:
I know this hasn’t been especially in-depth, so if you encounter any problems, feel free to email me (hey.epiphora at gmail dot com) and I will be happy to help you!
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October 12th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Thanks for explaining this. I'm trying to build a blog. Trying being the key word. I've only ever used Diaryland. & that was years ago.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
QUESTION!
How can you tell if someone is watching your feed? I don’t expect anyone to, but I’d like to know. Thanks
October 13th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I’m trying to use the feedburner site you suggested and I can’t get the feed to validate?
I know you’re a student as well, so if I’m bothering you, make sure to let me know!
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:51 pm
I actually didn’t know what RSS stood for until I read this.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
The only thing I get is “Subscribe with Live Bookmark.”
I wanted to set up a Google Reader account. That would be an easy way to keep track of all the blogs I’m interested in.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
@Selective Sensualist: Here’s a better idea: get a Google Reader account first, then go into that and you can add blog URLs manually.