needles and steez

You're all probably thinking "Great, another blog to keep track of..." when you should be thinking, "Oh, I'll just add it to my reading list." Most blogging platforms include some form of syndication, such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom, most often denoted by a feed icon like this one:

For example, this blog's feed address is: http://needlesandsteez.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
RSS/Atom feeds are a standardized method of sharing time-sensitive information between websites and users. A feed's content may vary but its structure stays the same- allowing for all compatible feed readers to access and read the data. There are a variety of feed readers available, some as desktop applications and others as web applications.

You can copy and paste the feed address for this and other blogs into a feed reader that will automatically check the feed for new posts on a regular basis. I'm going to talk about Google Reader, a hosted feed reading and management tool. The advantage of your RSS reader being a web application is that you can take your data with you, much like you can with webmail.

If you have a Gmail account, visit http://reader.google.com to get started. I suggest trying it out by adding the needles and steez feed to your account and tagging it. It is best to think of Google Reader as an automated inbox for the web, to keep you abreast of news and information. Reader also lets you share articles of interest to your friends and Gmail contacts, as well as see items that they are sharing via their account.

Most large news sites have RSS feeds available for headlines, particular kinds of news etc. Many sites, such as Facebook and Netflix, provide unique, personal RSS feeds for user-specific information (such as your FB updates, rental queue etc). Keep an eye out for this icon on blogs and websites, clicking it will load a site's feed into your Google Reader for you: