A brief introduction to RSS feeds: what they are, how to use them, and how they can help you organize your life online. Presented at the Westerville Public Library, September 3rd, 2008.

1. Feed Me: RSS Feeds 101 Learn what RSS feeds are all about. All links can be found at: http://del.icio.us/westervillelibrary/RSS101 Slideshow can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/westervillelibrary/rss-101

3. Your Personalized Newspaper Would Look Something Like This:

8. MyYahoo! http://cm.my.yahoo.com/

9. Bloglines www.bloglines.com

10. Pageflakes www. pageflakes .com

11. NetVibes www. netvibes .com

12. iGoogle www.google.com/ig

13. Internet Browsers Pro: For those of you who love bookmarks and browser add-ons, this way of viewing RSS feeds is for you. Cons: These are only viewable on the browser where you have set them up, so they are not “mobile” unless they were set up on a laptop or mobile device. These are less visual.

14. Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx)

15. Firefox (Live Bookmarks) (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)

16. Email Options Pro: If you love the way email works, you will appreciate these options. These readers allow you to “delete” feeds once you have viewed them, whereas most other readers simply mark them as read and leave them as viewable until new content arrives. Con: These readers are less visual.

17. Outlook 2007 http://office.microsoft.com/

18. Google Reader www. google .com/reader

19. Not Ready to Commit? Luckily, most RSS feeds can be viewed like any other webpage. Internet browsers have the capability of viewing all of the feed content without actually using an RSS reader. In this way, you don’t have commit to a reader if you aren’t quite ready to make the jump. Keep in mind that you don’t have to subscribe to every feed you encounter. Only add those feeds that you are interested in viewing on a regular basis.

20. Viewing Feeds without a Reader

21. How to Find Feeds Look for the RSS symbol on your favorite websites and/or blogs. Consult RSS Feed directories such as Syndic8 and Technorati. Check your RSS feed reader. Some readers (such as MyYahoo!) offer suggestions in different categories. Ask your friends!

22. Entertaining Feeds AllRecipes Daily recipes http://allrecipes.com/Help/aboutus/rss.aspx Rotten Tomatoes Movie reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/pages/syndication_rss Internet Movie Database Recent entertainment news http://www.imdb.com/news/

23. Shopping Feeds Ebay Alerts by category or seller http://www. rssauction .com/ Amazon.com Track new products by subject http://www. amazon . com/gp/tagging/rss-help .html iTunes Store New releases, Top 10s by genre http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStoreServices.woa/wa/MRSS/rssGenerator Expedia Flight prices filtered by destination http://www. expedia . com/daily/outposts/rss/expedia_rss .asp? ccheck=1 &

24. Practical Feeds GovGab Blog Feed Information on the latest government resources http://blog.usa.gov/roller/govgab/ Yahoo! Finance Track news based on company stock symbols http://finance.yahoo.com/rssindex National Weather Service Severe weather alerts http://www. nws . noaa .gov/alerts/ Food and Drug Administration Information about recalls http://www. fda . gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/rssRecalls .xml

25. Benefits Helps organize the massive amount of information that can be found on the Internet. Eliminates email overload, allowing for the most important information to come through. You no longer have to seek out new information from your favorite sites. You can keep up-to-date on what is most important to you.

26. What about Creating Feeds? RSS feeds are becoming easier and easier to create, and are being used for a variety of applications. You may already be creating a feed if you use services such as Facebook, Blogger, Etsy, or Twitter. Simply look for instructions on how to find your feed while logged in to these services. If you’re interested in creating feeds “from scratch” for your business, try employing the help of some tech savvy friends or colleagues, or check out the resources provided at the end of this presentation.

27. Resources for Further Study For the Basics: RSS in Plain English (video) http://www. youtube .com/watch? v=0klgLsSxGsU RSS Toolbox (website) A comprehensive list of RSS readers, directories, and tools. http://mashable.com/2007/06/11/rss-toolbox/ RSS Demystified (slide presentation) http://www. slideshare . net/pbromberg/rss-demystified Feedburner Track your feed stats and learn the basics about feed building. http://www. feedburner . com/fb/a/home

28. Resources (cont’d) More Feeds: U.S. Government RSS Library http://www. usa . gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library . shtml Directory of RSS Feeds related to Business & Careers http://www. allbusiness .com/2984677-1.html Syndicat8 - RSS Feed Directory www.syndic8.com Westerville Public Library’s RSS Feeds http://catalog. westervillelibrary .org/screens/feeds.html

29. Resources (cont’d) Articles and Books: RSS Marketing Feed Frenzy by Melissa Campanelli http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/gettingtraffic/article174666.html Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies by Ellen Finkelstein A good place to start learning about RSS feeds, how they work, and ideas on how to use them. Secrets of RSS by Steven Holzner A technical view of how to set up your own RSS feeds and XML documents.

30. Thank you! Presented by: Tamara Westerville Public Library September 3rd, 2008