Behind the Times - RSS Feeds

Like many people, I enjoy keeping up with a lot of sites on the web.  I have tons of bookmarked sites that I try to keep up with regularly.  Lately, it seemed like keeping up with fitness, finance, and sports blogs had become a chore.  I felt like I was always forgetting to look at a website, and therefore missing out on something.

Also, like many people, I love finding easier ways to do things.  So called "Lifehacks."  Which got me thinking, wouldn't it be great if somehow I could keep track of all the sites I regularly visit, and know when there was new material available?  Sounds like a great market opportunity right....?

Apparently someone beat me to the punch....sixteen years ago.  As it turns out, there's already something created for that - RSS Feeds.  The idea dates back to 1995, and became widely accepted via Mozilla Firefox in 2005.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds allow publishers to syndicate content automatically.  They also allow users to subscribe to a website, and not have to check it manually each day.  Plus, you can subscribe to multiple websites using an RSS reader, such as the web-based Google Reader, or Outlook-based NewsGator.    

An RSS Reader automatically updates when new content is available, and allows you to read all of your favorite websites at once.  Just look for this symbol to subscribe to a website via your RSS Reader.

Yes, I that's one for my blog on the right side of the page.  Pretty cool, huh?