Newbie tutorial: How to read your favourite blogs without going to the site, automagically

RSS is possibly the bestest thing the interwebs have thought of in the last 5 years and I’m here to tell you what RSS is, why it’s so damn cool, and how you can use it without geeking out too much. By the time you finish this article you’ll be set up with a free newsreader program that automatically delivers you new content from any site you subscribe to (for free). It’s a great way to read fresh content from all your favourite sites without actually going to their website!

Background:

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, and it’s a nice way of gathering content automatically from any site that creates it’s own RSS “feed”, (like this one). Pretty much every website in the world that publishes content regularly (like blogs or news sites) has an RSS feed. Some contain the full article content, and some are just a short taste of the full article so you can sample it before clicking through to the site to read the full version. Some even have sound or video files embedded in them, at which point they become Podcasts that you may already subscribe to in iTunes. Read more about RSS on wikipedia. Yep – Podcasts are just regular RSS feeds with sound or video…

Get some RSS reader software:

Honestly, there are lots of free Windows or OsX software based RSS-readers, but by far the best way to subscribe and read RSS feeds is with Google Reader. If you already have a google account (with gmail for example), then you can head straight over to the Google Reader site and get started. If you don’t have a google account, create one here.

Finding and subscribing to feeds:

Most website will display the standard orange feed symbol fairly prominently, and clicking on that will give you the various subscribe options. Just click the button for google and it’ll transfer you to the google reader interface to confirm your subscription.

Sometimes you’ll see this kind of screen instead. In this case, select the “google” option from the drop-down box instead. You can also click on the link that says “always subscribe using google” and it’ll remember your choice.

If you’re using Safari, then you’re going to have to copy and paste the feed address manually because Safari tries to hi-jack the link for it’s own built in feed reading abilities (which are lame, at best). Get yourself a compatible browser, like Chrome or Firefox.

Google Reader Interface

The interface and functions of the online google reader application are what really make it stand out above the rest, so let’s take a quick tour of the best features.

Basic Interface and sharing:

Your feed items all appear on the right hand side of the screen. There are quick buttons to navigate long posts at the bottom of the page, allowing you to quick scan back and forward through all your items. Just as with mail conversations in gmail, you can “star” individual items to favourite them for later. You can also share them easily with the facebook buttons etc, and if your feed item only has sample content, just click on the “read more” link or on the bold title of that item. If you need to add a subscription manually, just click the button in the top left.

Organize your feeds and browse by category:

Once you’re subscribed to a few sites, the ability to categorize them is crucial. You might also like this if you’re subscribed to NSFW sites, as you can put them into their own category and keep them separate to read when you get home. Click on the “manage my subscriptions” link to start assigning categories and to delete any you’re bored of.

Explore the Recommended Items:

This is another great feature that uses Google’s data of popular feed items and can also recommend other feeds you might be interested in, determined by what you’ve been marked or shared. If you feel like you don’t have enough feeds, this is a good place to find more and I’ve found a quite a few from sites I’d never heard of before.

Here’s one I made earlier!

Now, let’s practice this subscribing business. Click on this link, which is the RSS feed for TokyoBIT and click on SUBSCRIBE in Google Reader. Now, whenever a new article or post appears at TokyoBIT, you’ll be the first to know!

If you’re living in Japan, I also recommend my own money saving strategies / self improvement and occasional cultural insight post over at Frugalista Japan. As an added bonus, once I reach the 500 subscriber target, I’ll be making another $50 donation to the Kiva fund for micro-loan projects in Asia.