One of the challenges of the Internet is simply dealing with the huge volume of information. There are billions of Web pages out there—and more being added every day.
If you’re accustomed to checking specific Web sites daily to find news updates on a particular topic—such as Pocket PC—RSS can save you a lot of time. Maybe you’re already using it. If so, skip down to Pocket PC-related RSS feeds where I list Web sites related to Windows Mobile. If not, read on.
RSS—Really Simple Syndication
People can’t seem to agree on what “RSS” stands for, but most commonly it’s said to be “Really Simple Syndication.” Basically, it’s a way of quickly and conveniently collecting in one place, the headlines and news summaries from many different Web sites. If one of the headlines catches your interest, then you can click a link to read the full item on the Web.
Say, for example, that you’re a fan of Pocket PC Thoughts (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com), a major source of Pocket PC-related news. Rather than visit the site daily to see its news postings, you can simply add Pocket PC Thoughts to your RSS “aggregator” and read the postings there. Note that only Web sites featuring RSS feeds can be “aggregated.” Often there’s a small orange RSS icon signifying the availability of an RSS feed.
RSS aggregators
An aggregator is a software program that lets you subscribe to RSS feeds. Sometimes it’s also called an RSS reader. The one that I use on my Mac, NetNewsWire Lite, in many ways resembles e-mail software. The sites that I’ve subscribed to appear in a pane along the left of the program window almost like folders in Microsoft Outlook. When you click on the icon for a site, it shows you the headlines in a fashion similar to the list of e-mail subject headings in Outlook. Clicking on a subject heading shows the headline and a news summary, like the message text preview pane in Outlook.
NetNewsWire Lite and other desktop PC “RSS Aggregators” let you collect headlines, news summaries and more, from many different Web sites, and display them in one central location on your computer.
In fact, one of the popular ways of reading RSS feeds is to use NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com), which simply runs in Outlook and delivers the news to Outlook folders.
You can find a short (and subjective) list of the top aggregators on the Blogspace Web site (http://blogspace.com/rss/readers). A much more comprehensive list is available on the Weblogs Compendium Web site (http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss.html). There are both commercial and freeware aggregators.
Or you can use a Web site such as the free Fastbuzz News as an aggregator (http://www.fastbuzz.com).
There was a great RSS Quickstart Guide on the Lockergnome Web site, but as I write this, the page seems to be gone. I did find quite a good overview article on the SearchEngineWatch Web site (http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175281). It tells what RSS is, has an annotated listing of aggregators, and also lists RSS directories and search engines that help you find feeds on topics of interest to you.
I’ve only used a few such directories, but the one I like best so far is CompleteRSS (http://www.completerss.com). Often your aggregator itself will also have a directory.
Most top web sites have RSS feeds
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