December 7, 2005
RSS Readers - Easiest way to read blogs!
I am very much surprised that most of my friends are not aware about RSS Readers. So I decided to write this blog.
What is an RSS reader?
RSS Reader is a client side application which is used to read blogs. Just think of Microsoft Outlook which is a client side application which is used to read emails. Like that RSS Readers are used to read blogs.
What does RSS stand for?
RSS means Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication. It is a method to syndicate your site content. This is done by creating an XML document which summarizes specific site content such as news, blog posts or comments and forum threads.
What are the various free RSS reader available?
Some of the free RSSreaders are
Feedreader: http://www.feedreader.com/
SharpReader: http://www.sharpreader.com/ (This one is very good but needs .NET framework.)
BlogStreet Info Aggregator: http://rss.blogstreet.com
AmphetaDesk: http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/
Wildgrape NewsDesk 1.1: http://www.wildgrape.net/
Beaver: http://www31.brinkster.com/toolmaker
KlipFolio: http://www.serence.com/site.php
BlogExpress: http://blogexpress.com/
RSSConnect: http://www.perfectxml.com/RSSConnect/
Awasu Personal Edition: http://www.awasu.com/
PS:I use Feedreader.
How to use a RSS reader?
1. Download and install a rss reader.
2. If the blog site or website which you are interested in gives rss support (look for words like RSS, XML on the website), copy their RSS link and add that link in your RSS reader.
You want me to explain a demo installation?
1. Go to the website http://www.feedreader.com/and install Feedreader on your machine.
2. Open FeedReader. Go to Tools–>Properties–>Connection and make your internet settings.
3. Go to File–>New–>New Feed. It’ll ask for enter URL of feed. Here you enter http://www.sheshagirirao.com/blog/feed/and click on ‘Next’ and then click ‘Finish’. Wait and see the magic! All the blogs from my website http://www.sheshagirirao.comwill be displayed in your Feedreader like mails are displayed on your Microsoft Outlook!
You need some more sample feeds?
Try http://www.madmanweb.com/index.rdf.This is an interesting blog site by a mad man!
Try http://www.rediff.com/rss/inrss.xml.This is the news feed from rediff. Most of the news sites give out their feed this way! You can yourself try searching for the feed of http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
So, what’s the advantage of RSS readers?
You can keep in touch with your friends by reading their blogs without visiting their sites daily! The moment they write a new blog it’ll arrive in your RSS Reader like a mail arrives in your outlook!
Warning: I had added lots of feeds from various blogs and sites to my Feedreader and then I got so much irritated with plenty of flow of information to my brain that I stopped using RSS reader for many months! Now a days I use my Feedreader only for reading blogs by my friends.
Note: If you want to subscribe to feeds from your friends blog site on blogspot or Live Journal do the following:
- If the url on blogspot is like http://sheshagiri.blogspot.com/ then his/her feed url is http://sheshagiri.blogspot.com/atom.xml. Add this feed url in your RSS reader.
- If the url on Live Journal is like http://www.livejournal.com/users/sheshagiri_pk then his/her feed url is http://www.livejournal.com/users/sheshagiri_pk/data/rss. Add this url in your RSS reader.
Comments
December 7, 2005
Arjun said:
I use bloglines.com ->and i strongly feel that you too will use it once you try it
advantage is.. its webbased, and u can access your feeds from any place on this planet!
Other option is google reader. But for now, i am happy with bloglines.
Shesh said:
Hey Arjun, thanks for the info. I checked out both bloglines & google reader. I personally liked google reader, its damn too fast! It downloads photos in no time!!
December 8, 2005
sandeep said:
Cool maccha! Good to see your logs…Keep it up…
… … This rss feedreader is awesome(of course at the cost of cmpny bandwidth 
)..
.Was expecting some osho’s blog too
Cheers.
Sandeep.
December 15, 2005
Shesh said:
My friend Vasuki listed these 3 disadvantages of Feed reader:
1) There is no keyboard shortcut to delete a headline! I hate using
the mouse and I expect a keyboard shortcut for everything.
2) We cannot select multiple headlines together. If I have to delete
multiple headlines, I have to delete it one by one.
3) The most irritating thing is, the search. It gives you the results
of the deleted headlines also! Also, if you go to Manage filters, the
feed dropdown contains the deleted feeds also.
Now a days I am using Sharpreader. I feel it’s better than feedreader & it doesn’t have the above mentioned problems. The only thing with Sharpreader is that it needs .NET framework on your machine. If you are using Widows XP or Windows 2003, .NET Framework will be already running on your machine. If you don’t have you’ll have to download it from Microsoft site. It’s free to intall.