RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. Foregoing all of the geek-speak it is simply a technology created to save time for anybody who uses the internet. This is accomplished by bringing published feeds (i.e. such as the RMBarry News Blog) directly to you, by the use of an aggregator (e.g. such as iGoogle) .

Still confused? Here are some diagrams about how RSS feeds work.

Here is a diagram of the traditional method of gathering information online.

Before the invention of RSS, a web user would have to visit his/her favorite websites one by one to find new information. This is the slower, more cumbersome way of gathering information on the internet.

With the invention of RSS, a user can save precious time by subscribing to RSS feeds directly from their favorite RSS-enabled websites using an RSS Aggregator.

Wait a minute! What are RSS Feeds and RSS Aggregators???

An RSS feed is a special programming channel that many web sites use to provide their visitors with new information. This includes blogs and news feeds. You can always identify if a website has an RSS Feed if you see a or this phrase: RSS/Atom 2.0. There is an RSS feed on http://www.rmbarry.com/blog

An RSS Aggregator is just an application designed to retrieve many RSS feeds, and bring them together in one place (to aggregate). In order to obtain RSS feeds you need to first have an aggregator. There are many available; some are web-based and others are downloadable. One newer and growing RSS aggregator is iGoogle. For simplicity’s sake we are going to use iGoogle for this tutorial since it’s free and simple.

Getting RSS feeds delivered to you is a two step process.

Step 1: Decide on your aggregator service and get an account.

Step 2: Subscribe to the RSS feeds you wish.

(Oh, yeah, and step 3 is to make a habit to read the headlines you’ve gathered!)

How to subscribe to the RMBarry RSS feed with iGoogle.

You will first need to visit www.google.com/ig and create a Google account. If you already have a gmail account or use any other Google services this can be accomplished in one click. After you have signed up for iGoogle you will be able to subscribe to RSS Feeds.

Example of a new iGoogle account:

The categories you see above for CNN, Top stories, How to of the Day, are all RSS Feeds that are placed on iGoogle by default. You would like to receive the RSS feed from rmbarry.com. To do this you will need to visit http://www.rmbarry.com/blog and find this RSS Feed icon. Click on this icon and you will see a screen that looks like this:

Go ahead and click on . You will see this screen next:

Here you are presented with two RSS aggregators iGoogle or Google Reader (which is also another excellent RSS Aggregator). For this example click on Add to Google Homepage. Now you will see something like this:

Now you are receiving RMBarry RSS Feeds! Whenever there is a new announcement about RMBarry such as US inventory up-to-date you will instantly see the new headline along with all the other headlines you’ve hand-picked for iGoogle. Using iGoogle is just one way to receive RSS Feeds. There are several other RSS Aggregators available including bloglines.com, My Yahoo!, Newsgator, My AOL, Windows Live just to name a few.

Read “Why do we have a blog?” for directions to read RSS feeds right in Internet Explorer 7!
Warning: RSS Subscriptions can be addictive!