Instapaper
I read blogs--in fact, I read a LOT of blogs. If only there was a way to avoid having to check them all! There is--and if you're reading this post, you more than likely have seen the solution every day.
The solution? RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, or, as most people call it, "that orange icon you see everywhere and just sort of ignore because our brains are good at ignoring stuff that doesn't impact us". Anyway, "RSS" is catchier.
RSS is the standard way to deliver the content--and ONLY the content--of a blog directly to you without having to load the site itself. By "subscribing" to an RSS feed, you get that blog's content delivered to your RSS reader as it becomes available. A feed can consist of blog posts, news updates, comments, or even things like search results! They might appear as a summary, the first 100 words or so, or as the entire post, images, videos, and all.
Think of RSS as somewhere between reading a blog in a web browser and getting a newsletter delivered to your email. Once you've read a post, it's removed from your list, just like email.
To subscribe to a website's feed, just click the RSS icon in your web browser's address bar or toolbar. (Bet you never noticed it THERE before!) That'll prompt you to open the .RSS or .XML file in your RSS reader of choice. Don't see an icon? It's possible there IS no RSS feed for that website. A popular trend in modern sites is to keep the icon in the footer, at the very bottom of the page, so that's a good place to check too.
There exists a variety of software for managing and reading RSS feeds. The most popular method? Google Reader.
http://www.google.com/reader Like everything else Google does, you log in with your Google account, and your subscribed feeds are just stored on Google's servers. And, let's face it: it's Google. You already know what it looks like!
If, like me, you prefer reading your feeds in a stand-alone application rather than within your web browser, Google Reader is still a good choice. Despite using Google Reader to handle my feeds, I actually view them within NetNewsWire on my Mac. On my iPhone, (I DID say "any place" earlier!) I'm using Reeder,
http://reederapp.com though other popular choices include Feedly, and an iPhone-native NetNewsWire client.
For a good middle ground, check out Fluid on Mac OS X,
http://fluidapp.com or Mozilla Prism
http://prism.mozillalabs.com/ on Windows and Linux. Both are effectively single-page browsers, allowing you to encapsulate Google Reader and ONLY Google Reader within the Fluid/Prism window. You can launch them like any ordinary application and treat a web page as if it were a native program.
Because I am generally an obsessive typography fangirl and, somewhat ironically, have two dozen feeds in my Google Reader's "Minimalism" folder, I use Helvetireader
http://helvetireader.com user script. It applies a new style to Google Reader, doing away with a great deal of the clutter and renders what remains in Helvetica, currently the only font with its own documentary.
http://www.helveticafilm.com/Personally, I sort my feeds both by topic--"Webcomics" or "Usability"--and by priority. "Must-read" feeds, often from both those categories, go in a single folder, letting me be sure I haven't missed anything. Try out a couple different methods. Personally, I read some pretty heavy social-justice blogs, and I really need to be in the right mood for them. My "must-read" folder is full of things I'm ready to hear about any time, any place.
And yes, the Tech Blog naturally has a feed too. That's how I readit!
I read blogs--in fact, I read a lot of blogs. If only there was a way to avoid having to check them all! There is--and if you're reading this post, you more than likely have seen the solution every day.
The solution? RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, or, as most people call it, "that orange icon you see everywhere and just sort of ignore because our brains are good at ignoring stuff that doesn't impact us". Anyway, "RSS" is catchier.
RSS is the standard way to deliver the content--and only the content--of a blog directly to you without having to load the site itself. By subscribing to an RSS feed, you get that blog's content delivered to your RSS reader as it becomes available. A feed can consist of blog posts, news updates, comments, or even things like search results! They might appear as a summary, the first 100 words or so, or as the entire post, images, videos, and all.
Think of RSS as somewhere between reading a blog in a web browser and getting a newsletter delivered to your email. Once you've read a post, it's removed from your list, just like email.
To subscribe to a website's feed, just click the RSS icon in your web browser's address bar or toolbar. (Bet you never noticed it there before!) That'll prompt you to open the .RSS or .XML file in your RSS reader of choice.
Don't see an icon? It's possible there is no RSS feed for that website. It might be an older site, or just not the sort of website where an RSS feed would make any sense. One popular trend these days is to place a feed icon at the very bottom of the page, so that's a good place to check too.
There exists a variety of software for managing and reading RSS feeds. The most popular method? Google Reader. Like everything else Google does, you log in with your Google account, and your subscribed feeds are just stored on Google's servers. And, let's face it: it's Google. You already know what it looks like!
If, like me, you prefer reading your feeds in a stand-alone application rather than within your web browser, Google Reader is still a good choice. Despite using Google Reader to handle my feeds, I actually view them within NetNewsWire on my Mac. On my iPhone, (I did say I read feeds in "any place"!) I'm using Reeder, though other popular choices include Feedly, and the iPhone NetNewsWire client.
For a good middle ground, check out Fluid on Mac OS X, or Mozilla Prism on Windows and Linux. Both are effectively single-page browsers, allowing you to encapsulate Google Reader and ONLY Google Reader within the Fluid/Prism window. You can launch them like any ordinary application and treat a web page as if it were a native program.
Because I am generally an obsessive typography fangirl and, somewhat ironically, have two dozen feeds in my Google Reader's "Minimalism" folder, I use Helvetireader. It's applies a new style to Google Reader, doing away with a great deal of the clutter and renders what remains in Helvetica, currently the only font with its own documentary.
Personally, I sort my feeds both by topic--"Webcomics" or "Usability"--and by priority. "Must-read" feeds go in a single folder, letting me be sure I haven't missed anything I really want to stay on top of. Some of my feeds, I really just speed-read. Others, I want to take the time to sit down and read them at my leisure.
I recommend trying out a couple different organizational methods, though. Personally, I read some pretty heavy social-justice blogs, and while I might not want to miss their posts, I really need to be in the right mood for them. My "must-read" folder is full of things I'm ready to hear about any time, any place.
And yes, the Tech Blog naturally has a feed too. That's how I read it!
CatherineOmega
on - last edited on
