Posts Tagged ‘greader’

The Basics of RSS: What is RSS?

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, allows you to view a website’s latest content within a feed reader. The point? You can bundle multiple websites’ feeds and catch up on all of the latest updates to your favorite websites from one place, instead of visiting each site manually. For more technical information, you can view this Wikipedia article, but this post will feature more of how to use RSS.

Finding RSS Feeds

RSS is usually identified by this ubiquitous orange icon pictured above. If you see it, it usually designates a feed.

If a website has an RSS feed, the RSS icon will show up in the Firefox location bar…

Or Internet Explorer’s RSS button will light up.

Safari doesn’t use the RSS icon, and instead displays a blue button in the location bar with the text RSS.

Using RSS with Google Reader

Google provides an excellent web based feed reader, called Google Reader. We’re going to show you how to subscribe to an RSS feed using Google Reader.

In Mozilla Firefox

Click the RSS button. A menu of possible choices shows up. For now, we’re going to use CNN’s Top Stories feed.

Google will greet you with a portion of the RSS feed and asks you how you want to subscribe. Since we’re showing this for Google Reader, select Google and click Subscribe Now.

Google will ask whether to use iGoogle or Add to Google Reader. Pick Add to Google Reader. Your new feed should show up in Google Reader.

In Windows Internet Explorer

Click the RSS button on the right part, and click CNN - Top Stories.

Internet Explorer will also show the feed. Since it doesn’t provide a way to subscribe using an application other than itself, we’ll need to copy the URL of the feed.

Head over to Google Reader, and click the Add Subscription button. Paste in the URL you copied from the feed, and click Add.

We’ve covered how to subscribe to an RSS feed using Google Reader in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Webpages in the Firefox Sidebar

Using Firefox’s “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” feature, we’ll show you some websites perfectly suited for being located in the sidebar. If you need help adding and configuring the bookmarks, there’s some detailed instructions in the last part of this tutorial.

Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk’s iGoogle gadget is perfectly suited for placement inside the sidebar. To embed your Remember the Milk to-do list, bookmark the following link:

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/

Twitter

Using Twitter’s mobile inteface, we can tweet and view other member’s tweets - all in a minimalistic interface. To use this, bookmark:

http://m.twitter.com/

Google Reader

Google Reader’s iPhone interface is a perfect candidate for embedding into the sidebar. Use this link:

http://www.google.com/reader/i/

Google Talk

Chat with your friends and browse the Internet without switching tabs or windows. To put Google Talk into your sidebar, bookmark:

http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/popout

iGoogle

Get your iGoogle with all of the gadgets of the full version in the sidebar. This iGoogle interface comes from the iPhone version of iGoogle, and while it doesn’t come with the themes of iGoogle, it’s definitely still useful. Bookmark…

http://www.google.com/ig/i?source=gp2

Detailed Instructions

We’ve provided an easy to follow tutorial for configuring your bookmarks to load in the sidebar.

Bookmark the links in this article by right clicking and selecting Bookmark This Link.

Head to the Bookmarks menu, right click your bookmark, and click Properties.

Check the box that says Load this bookmark in the sidebar and click Save Changes. Your bookmark is now configured to load in the Firefox sidebar.