My Wooden Spoon

 This is not a food post.  It’s to help those that don’t know what RSS is.

After reading through some of my contest entries and seeing people NOT know what RSS is, I decided I would post a quick tutorial for ALL you RSS noobs!

I realize that there are many people who see RSS and say “Uh, what the hec is that?”. Here you will find out why RSS means and how to use it.  In a nutshell, it’s where you can read ALL you favorite blogs in one place.  When a blog updates or writes a new post, it will show up in your reader if you have subscribed to it.  It makes it much more easier than surfing and visiting every single blog you love.  This is especially great if you lack the time to surf or if you find it hard to load a page.

RSS, “Really Simple Syndication”, is an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Don’t freak out now, that is a more technical definition. It’s basically an easy, free way to keep track of sites/blogs that update frequently.

Lots of people who read blogs use an RSS reader like Bloglines, Yahoo, Google, etc. I favor the Google Reader myself. Sign up with one of them so you can start grabbing feeds.

“Grabbing” or Subcribing to the RSS Feed is simple. Look for buttons similiar to these:

Simply click the icon and it will take to a page that asks you how you want to subscribe. Here you will choose the reader of your choice. Like I said above, I prefer Google Reader. This is what mine looks like. After you choose the reader, it will be added automatically. As you can see, I have several showing that I subscribe too.

If you come across a site that doesn’t have an icon to click on you can add it yourself. If you look closely to the left, you will see “Add subscription”. This is where you can add the url of any blog or website you like and it will find the feed for you. This demonstration is if you use the Google Reader. Sorry, but I don’t know how others work.

That’s it! Start grabbing feeds of sites that you like and read everyday and then all you have to do it open up your reader and see what’s new at your favorite blogs all in one place.