Thing 3: RSS

I have been using RSS for awhile. In fact I used a similar technology way back in 1996 called PointCast. PointCast was one of the first 'push technologies'. Push technology was a way for an information provider to send you information without an explicit request. You'd just tell the provider what types of information and they would push it out to you.

While RSS is not a push technology because the RSS reader still pulls the information, it still has much of the same effect. You don't have to go around gathering data because you tell the feed reader what you want and where to get it. Then Google Reader, Bloglines or whatever program will happily collect it all in one place for you to read.

I checked my Google Reader account and I currently have 35+ feeds that I read daily, not including new feeds I found through 23 Things.

One little known, but highly effective use for RSS is to monitor a page for changes. On Wikipedia, if you subscribe to the RSS feed for a given page, you will receive updates in your reader whenever the page is updated. This has proven to be an effective way to combat spammers and other attempts to dilute or tilt the information on that site.

1 comments:

Like you I have used RSS for quite a while...picking and choosing the feeds that I am most interested in...I especially use it to monitor pages.

Cindy Gruwell
CMLE 23 Things

February 21, 2008 at 8:41 AM  

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