I'm studying RSS feeds.

[brainshrub]

What are your favorite RSS feeds? Post them below.

I'm still trying to understand:
a) Why should I make one for my site?
b) Why would anyone want one?

I'm reading up on RSS, but I just don't "get it" yet.

[CottonBear]

1. How do RSS feeds work?

I'm not a computer expert. Do RSS feeds "grab" news feeds and route them to your computer?

[brainshrub]

2. I'm not sure.

I'm reading about them, but I don't really understand.

As an experiment, I subscribed to an RSS feed from the Rockridge Institute: http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/

All that happened is that I how have a link in my Bookmarks that shows me all the latest articles.

It's mildly cool, but I don't see how my site could use use it since most of my material comes from other sites. I also don't see why bloggers would like it.

But I'm still new to this.

[Occulus]

3. The way I understand it,

which seems to be the way the readers I've tried work, is this:

A website you like gets an RSS feed set up. You enter the URL of their feed into your RSS reader, along with whatever other sites you want to add that have a feed. When relevant updates are added to the site, you know about it through your reader. The ones I've used (and I honestly can't remember their names) ran in the XP system tray.

edit: to really get the most out of a website that has such a feed, you need a reader on your end. There are several here: http://blogspace.com/rss/readers

[MrPrax]

4. NO...

Most RSS (Really Simple Syndication) jockeys have too many feeds already...

But if you do...
Then link to

http://www.feedreader.com/

or point out that Firebird has a RSS plug-in

RSS is good for sites you want to monitor because they have the 'odd bit' you might want to have an 'head's up' about (slashdot, boing boing), but the big problem with RSS is that sites rarely update enuff (NPR for instance) and the ones that do like moreover.com are just ads and 'hit' machines for corps...

[brainshrub]

5. I use FireFox

Every time I vist a site with an RSS feed, a little oragge box shows up in the lower right-had side. When I click it, it adds a link to my Bookmarks file so I can see the latest updates to the site.

But I don't see why this is a big deal? Do RSS readers do something different?

[MrPrax]

6. Um...yeah

Go to VIEW--SIDEBARS--And choose RSS reader...

A Left Side panel should open up and give you the options of managing your RSS feeds...they come out as Headlines from the various services...

Here's a couple to test out
http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories
http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/world/rss091.xml

and of course the ever reliable!!! Latest Breaking News from DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/rss/lbn_feed.php

[brainshrub]

7. Oooohhhhhhhh! I get it!

It's like getting an email... only it doesn't interrupt the regular emails and the box doesn't get progressively bigger.

I see why that might be cool.