What Is RSS Feed?

You may have noticed the new RSS Feed link on the site today as well as on other sites (where it’s often represented as an orange XML button). It means that you can subscribe to a RSS feed of new content posted at TomorrowJazz.com. It’s similar to the What’s New email newsletter I had at my old site but using a new means of delivering content that is gaining momentum. Like you need an email reader (such as Outlook or Eudora) to read your email, you’ll need a news aggregator to read the feed. With a news aggregator, you can read thousands of feeds throughout the Web, easily obtaining the latest news from unlimited news sources every few seconds.

News aggregators are becoming a more favored way of delivering information as spam is overtaking email. ISPs are increasingly and accidentally deleting legimate mass-mailings of newsletters you’ve subscribed to because of spam filters. This method also allows your privacy. You don’t have to submit any personal information such as your email address. It’s similar to newsgroup readers.

I’ve just started playing around with news aggregators tonight. There is a list of them at the LockerGnome RSS Resource. The one I’m playing with is the free Feedreader. A screenshot of it follows this entry.

After you have your aggregator installed, you just need to right-click on the orange XML button and save the location (‘Copy Shortcut’ in IE; ‘Copy Link Location’ in Mozilla) and add it to the list of feeds you’d like to receive. If you have questions or comments, just click the ‘Add A Comment’ link below the screen shot.