Of Blogs and Feeds
After launching the new Langa Blog ( http://langa.com/blog/ ) and RSS feed ( http://langa.com/blog/rss.xml ), we received mail about using them, including this note:
Hi. Can you explain how those RSS feeds work on people's blogs? I see on some blogs where you can subscribe to them but don't know how. I have clicked on the RSS thing but I get a file or something and don't know what to do with it. ---Gail
Both blogs and RSS feeds are relatively new,
simplified ways to publish and get content online.
Blogs, short for weblogs (as in Web log--- a log or journal published on the Web), make it
very easy for anyone who wants to publish on the Internet to do so, to offer and
collect reader comments, archive content and to link to other sites.
RSS--- the initials for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary or RDF Site
Summary, depending on whom you ask--- is a file format designed to make it easy
to subscribe to and read online content. When you click on an RSS link and see
code, you're looking at XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which is a language
for describing and conveying data, a kind of more sophisticated version of HTML.
Here's the key difference between blogs and RSS feeds: Blogs are designed to be
viewed with a regular browser just like any other Web page, whereas RSS feeds
usually require either a special kind of reader or a special Web site designed
to display RSS feeds.
One major advantage of RSS feeds is that you can subscribe to them, which means
simply that you tell your RSS reader that you want every post to get a specific
feed. When the publisher of that feed posts a new item, your RSS reader will
fetch it for you--- no searching or browsing required.
Like many sites that offer both a blog and an RSS feed, the Langa Blog and feed
are identical in content. You can choose to visit the blog, or subscribe to the
feed. (The Langa Blog RSS feed is an alternative to the Langa Blog itself, but
neither is an alternative to the LangaList e-newsletter, itself, which is packed with items
that will never be published on the Langa Blog or its RSS feed.)
RSS readers come in two types: desktop applications and Web sites. Some of the
more popular PC desktop applications are:
FeedDemon
http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdId=FeedDemon
RSSBandit
http://www.rssbandit.org/
GreatNews
http://www.curiostudio.com/
Popular RSS reader sites include:
Google Reader
http://reader.google.com/
Rojo
http://www.rojo.com/
Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com/
These are just a few of the many readers out there (
http://www.feed-readers.com/ ). To
return to your question: How to subscribe? The answer is application or
site-specific. So once you've selected a reader, just following the usually
simple instructions for adding sites to your subscription list.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Other
Permalink
