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Last update : January 2010
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How to Get More Efficient on your Computer
Consider using RSS to quickly scan websites
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Many people waste too much time on the internet. However it is not the reading or surfing that wastes time it's all the clicking from one website to the next.
But by using RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, you can make your surfing extremely efficient. With RSS you can sit back and have new content delivered to you, instead of having to visit the site to see if there is anything new that interests you.
Say for example you follow 25 different websites, financial, cooking, news, sports etc. Using RSS you don't have to visit the sites individually, instead the headlines and new content from all the sites appear in just the one window. So if you're not interested in a headline it is not necessary to visit the site.
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How To Use RSS
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To use RSS you need a program called a Feed Reader. You then tell the Reader which sites you are interested in, and the program will visit the sites at regular intervals and download the latest content. This will then appear in the RSS Reader.
There are two kinds of Reader software, standalone and web-based.
There's little between the two but if you want to read a load of articles when you're not always online, perhaps you have a laptop, the standalone software is best. This is because it will store the information on your hard drive and you will not have to access the net for it.
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Which Feed Software |
- If you're using a Mac one of the best is Shrook which is free
- FeedDemon for Windows is one of the more popular standalone versions
- For online, you can't really beat the Google Reader
Wikipedia also has a list of all the main RSS Readers
Personally I use the excellent Desktop Sidebar software. This software really works well if you have 2 monitors as it can be attached to one of them and is always visible whatever you're doing. I follow about 40 websites and with Desktop Sidebar can quickly scan them all in a matter of minutes.
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| How To Subscribe to an RSS Feed |
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To subscribe to an RSS feed, your RSS Reader needs the feed's address, which is different from the website's main address.
Most if not all websites which offer an RSS feed publicise this fact somewhere on the Home page, often with a orange button saying 'RSS' or 'Feed'. Click that and your Reader software will recognise it and subscribe you to the feed.
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Summary |
| With so much information on the web sorting it has never been more important. So if you're active on the internet consider using RSS to increase your efficiency. Some people use RSS to follow literally 100s of different websites, something that probably wouldn't be possible without it. |
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