#3 Blogging about RSS feeds

Google Reader is a web-based aggregator that can read Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. Atom and RSS feeds are are used to provide users with frequently updated content.

I used Google Reader to connect to sites I visit frequently. Three ways I discovered to add an RSS feed are:

1) Type in the URL of a favourite site that has an RSS attachment into the Google Reader. Then, once you've found it, you click Add Subscription.
2) Go to your favourite site and find the RSS or Atom icon on the page and subscribe via yahoo, Google or live bookmarks.
3) Add Bundles by choosing a favourite topic and clicking Subscribe to add the bundle of feeds in its own labeled folder.

Using an RSS reader is better than visiting sites individually because it allows you to look over all of your favourite pages with one quick glance, showing you all of the recent updates and activities at once. It gives you the latest updates. In contrast, using an RSS reader is worse than visiting individual sites because the site might be a visual experience and with RSS feeds, you can only get word summaries and some pictures. As well, RSS feeds only show certain parts of the website. For some, this is inconvenient as they want to view all aspects of the website, not just recently updated posts.

I do not find this technology useful for my every day life. Firstly, I don't have a large list of sites I check on a daily basis. Secondly, I use the bookmark tab option at the top of my Firefox browser window. I find this more convenient, and I enjoy visiting each site individually, for the whole experience of browsing, as opposed to digesting all of the information from all of the sites at once.The bookmark tab allows me to click on websites that I have manually added to it, and to have sites easily accessible to me.

Using something like Google Reader over desktop software is better because web-based aggregators do not take up space on your computer. There is no installation necessary. When you are using RSS feeds, you are already on the internet, so a web-based aggregator makes more logical sense and is more conveniently located and quickly accessible.

Happy Blogging and Sheep-shearing!