Markel Builds Beemer Fun

If you’re not familiar with RSS, you may wonder what in the world that weird symbol on the left hand side is. There is no shortage of explanations for what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is, but let’s try to simplify it to its core.

Do you ever find a website you really like and find yourself bookmarking that page to check back with it regularly (weekly, daily, hourly, etc)? That’s the beauty of RSS. For many sites like weblogs and news sites with regularly changing content, the person in charge of the site will create an RSS feed so that readers will be informed when new content is published. Think of it like a newspaper delivery person for your websites.

That RSS feed is only half of the equation, though. You need something on your end to decode that feed and give you the information you’re looking for. That’s where an RSS reader comes in. These programs (web-based or software-based) get the updates and organize them for you so you can read through the updated content from your favorite sites. Two of the most popular feed-readers are Google Reader and Bloglines. They are both free to use and will forever change the way you use the internet.

Sign up for one of those services and then follow the instructions they give (here’s a good tutorial for Google Reader) for adding subscriptions. Then, when you click on the “Subscribe via RSS/XML” you will be able to subscribe and get every update we put out there for the project.

If this stuff interests you, you can learn more about RSS here.