[X4U] RSS reader question

[eleventhvolume]

> I don't think much of any of these RSS news readers and I don't see much
> value in any of them, Net News Reader just takes you to a website and you
> read the story through your browser anyway. I think it works best through
> your regular web browser. I use Firefox subscribe to whatever feeds I want,
> set the bookmark in the personal toolbar and check it whenever I want that
> way. The use of so called "readers" seems totally redundant and a waste of
> time. 
> 
> I suppose YMMV but that my2scents
Different strokes, different folks, but here's my tuppence ha'penny, written
for a work colleague.

Cheers, Colin.

RSS (stands for Really Simple Syndication) or Newsfeeds
 
We float ­ consciously or not - in an ever expanding sea of information.
Visiting one site at a time in a web browser is an awfully slow way of
keeping up with everything that¹s happening. Apart from the sheer weight of
information, it¹s difficult to negotiate different visual designs and to
separate new from old content. A format called RSS and a programme called a
newsreader addresses these problems. RSS is a format that separates content
from design and delivers what is effectively an executive summary. Rather
than choosing a website to visit, news in a summarised format arrives like
email in your newsreader. And it¹s free. Which is nice.  The downside is
that not everybody produces an RSS Œfeed¹ ­ but a lot of interesting people
and enterprises do.
 
Instead of a web browser¹s single window, a newsreading application (e.g.
NetNewsWireLite, http://ranchero.com/ or Newsfire - my favourite -
http://www.newsfirerss.com/) presents the user with three panes ­ rather
like an email client. In the left pane are listed all the different website
names whose feeds you¹ve bookmarked. Clicking one of the site names displays
the titles of the latest site updates in the top right pane. Click a
headline and a summary displays in the lower right pane. Click the headline
in the lower pane and the relevant webpage will open up in your browser (or
in some Newsreaders it will open up directly in the same pane). Just like in
an email application, once you¹ve looked at a headline it will display as
read, but you can always flag the headline for future reference.
 
Newsfeeds (e.g. CNN headlines) can also be displayed directly on a webpage
with only a small amount of work. In some ways RSS offers some of the
advantages of a CMS without needing a CMS ­ it¹s possible to create content
once and publish it to many different places. As well as websites, newsfeeds
are published by bloggers, newspapers, databases and social software.