What Is RSS? and 5 Ways RSS Can Be Useful

Rich Site Summary (RSS), also referred to as Really Simple Syndication, is an easy way to keep up-to-date with a blog, news headlines or podcasts.

You probably already spend time visiting your favorite bookmarked websites to see if content has been updated or a new blog posted. This is where RSS comes in and saves you time visiting these sites on a regular basis and does the work for you.

What Do I Need To Read RSS?

You need a Feed Reader or News Aggregator that allows you to display RSS content easily. When you click on an RSS icon (above) you are subscribing to that site's feed. This will then go into your feed reader or aggregator. Take a peek at mine below and the feeds I read:

The Feed Reader will display content for you and indicate when new content has been published. This Reader brings all your feed together in one place.

The Feed Reader above is NetNewsWire for Mac.

But there are plenty of other free RSS Feed Readers for PC out there.

5 Ways RSS Is Useful

1) It saves you time
2) You can gather more information quicker
3) You can scan a title or opening paragraph without having to visit individual sites
4) You're notified as soon as new content is published
5) This extra time can be put to good use on other jobs

RSS is such a time saver giving you more time to read up on the latest news and probably fit a couple more jobs in your day.

Of course if the thought of having more time in your day for extra work isn't your idea of a good thing then you might want to imagine you've never heard of RSS, or explain to people it's a type of repetitive strain condition!

I must admit I still visit sites I am subscribed to just because I like the design or want to post a comment.

Does RSS sound like a good idea to you? Or do you still prefer the more personable daily visits to you favourite blogs? Do let me know.