My buddy Robin, who is the guru of the blogosphere in my limited circle of friends, recently told me about RSS feeds. I had to do some looking-up to understand exactly what they were, but I finally did figure it out. It's basically your way to subscribe to other people's blogs so that you no longer have to continue visiting their site to check for updates. You can use a feed reader website or program (I use bloglines), which receives automatic updates when new content is added.
[Coincidentally, Robin just wrote a blog about how RSS feeds are only used by about 4% of the adult American population today, but this number is due to grow. Google's Desktop application includes RSS, as will Microsoft's next-gen Windows OS]
When he was initially explaining it to me, he described it as a 'push' rather than a 'pull' (and, of course, I pretended to understand). This makes sense, since they will now be pushing the information to you, instead of you having to go to their sites and retrieve it. I guess the closest analogy is subscribing to newspapers so that you don't have drop by the newsstand everyday.
Well, I finally setup bloglines and, within a matter of minutes, I had already subscribed to over 30 feeds. Lo and behold, these things are as addictive as email - I continuously find myself checking to see if there are any updates. Previously, there were maybe 5 websites I would visit daily (mostly related to news, sports, and business). Now, I can get updates for over 30 in much less time than it used to take me with 5. This thing rocks!
As soon as I set this up, I told Robin of my long list of feeds (read: procrastination mechanisms) and here's his reply: it'll put an end to "surfing the web"...
Whoa... them be fighting words. But, you know what? Although he said it tongue-in-cheek, I can see it, at the very least, reducing the surfing. Since these subscriptions, I have significantly reduced the amount of time I spend actually "surfing" and looking for information. The information comes right to my doorstep, so to speak. NY Times sends me all their information. BBC does it. Yahoo Sports and ESPN do it. Other bloggers like Mark Cuban and numerous Venture Capitalists do it. Why would I want to spend any more time "surfing"?
Ok, there are times when I still surf, and visit the proverbial newsstand. After all, we do want to see what else is out there, and what the cover story in Time magazine is this week. But, the point stands. If (or rather, when) RSS feeds are used more, people will no longer go to 30 websites. They will go to one, and read all their information there. As Mark Cuban wrote in a recent blog, people generally choose the path of least resistance. That's how people make most of their choices in life. [Did he call all of us lazy? Man, I thought I was unique!]
In the case of finding information on the internet, RSS feeds just seem to offer the path of least resistance: You go to one site, and find most of the information you want to read right there!
One location. All the information. A lazy man's dream.
Until next time, Saif's out!
[Coincidentally, Robin just wrote a blog about how RSS feeds are only used by about 4% of the adult American population today, but this number is due to grow. Google's Desktop application includes RSS, as will Microsoft's next-gen Windows OS]
When he was initially explaining it to me, he described it as a 'push' rather than a 'pull' (and, of course, I pretended to understand). This makes sense, since they will now be pushing the information to you, instead of you having to go to their sites and retrieve it. I guess the closest analogy is subscribing to newspapers so that you don't have drop by the newsstand everyday.
Well, I finally setup bloglines and, within a matter of minutes, I had already subscribed to over 30 feeds. Lo and behold, these things are as addictive as email - I continuously find myself checking to see if there are any updates. Previously, there were maybe 5 websites I would visit daily (mostly related to news, sports, and business). Now, I can get updates for over 30 in much less time than it used to take me with 5. This thing rocks!
As soon as I set this up, I told Robin of my long list of feeds (read: procrastination mechanisms) and here's his reply: it'll put an end to "surfing the web"...
Whoa... them be fighting words. But, you know what? Although he said it tongue-in-cheek, I can see it, at the very least, reducing the surfing. Since these subscriptions, I have significantly reduced the amount of time I spend actually "surfing" and looking for information. The information comes right to my doorstep, so to speak. NY Times sends me all their information. BBC does it. Yahoo Sports and ESPN do it. Other bloggers like Mark Cuban and numerous Venture Capitalists do it. Why would I want to spend any more time "surfing"?
Ok, there are times when I still surf, and visit the proverbial newsstand. After all, we do want to see what else is out there, and what the cover story in Time magazine is this week. But, the point stands. If (or rather, when) RSS feeds are used more, people will no longer go to 30 websites. They will go to one, and read all their information there. As Mark Cuban wrote in a recent blog, people generally choose the path of least resistance. That's how people make most of their choices in life. [Did he call all of us lazy? Man, I thought I was unique!]
In the case of finding information on the internet, RSS feeds just seem to offer the path of least resistance: You go to one site, and find most of the information you want to read right there!
One location. All the information. A lazy man's dream.
Until next time, Saif's out!
Comments
One barrier to adoption of RSS is the name itself. Who knows what RSS is? I am waiting for the MS marketing gurus to call it something like "Microsoft News Feeds" like they invented it or something!
Saif, I think you forgot to mention your RSS feed from Playboy online :-)
And wouldnt it be really cool now that the PSP has a web browser (v2.0) if I could get the feeds delivered to my PSP daily.... just makes you want to drool
yours truly :-)
Btw, believe it or not, RSS = Really Simple Syndication
BTW, media entertainment systems are already pushing their way into homes.
Go here if you're bored: Microsoft media center configurator
Do you think gas pricing is ever going to go down? I founds some gas saving tips at college sports
Keep in touch :)