If you spend a lot of time trawling the web, visiting your favorite websites and blogs looking for updates, then you need an RSS reader.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Every site that is regularly updated (news sites, blogs, etc.) has an RSS “feed” and by subscribing to that feed using a “reader” or “news aggregator” you can get the updates delivered to you — online (through your Google account, for instance), to your desktop, via email, or to your smartphone. You can save articles for later use and can also share them with others.
Confused? You don’t have to be. Here’s a link to a funny, slightly rough, video that explains it all — very clearly.
I use Google Reader and currently have 88 RSS subscriptions. Can you imagine how much time I’d spend traveling from site to site to check for those updates? Now all I do is log in to my Google account and spend way too many hours reading all those articles.
If, after viewing the video, you have questions, leave a comment, and I’ll respond.
About Regina Fried