Why You Should be Using RSS - the final update

Another friend of mine recently lost her job, and I directed her to my blog to read about how to set up RSS feeds to scour the 'net for job leads. I then realized, I hadn't updated my tutorial with the final information I used. So, once again, in its entirety, here is the definitive guide on using RSS feeds (mainly for job searches, but the mechanics are used for anything).


If you're not already using RSS feeds, hopefully, this post will be revolutionary for you. But, it's important to tread lightly ... RSS feeds are addicting. I'm also going to warn you - this will be a fairly lengthy post.

In simple terms, RSS feeds enable you to be notified when websites/webpages you want to follow are updated. It's that easy. There's no need to worry about the technology or anything like that.

When Internet browsers first began, we had these great little tools called "bookmarks" - where you could return to a site and check out new content. If you're like me, you bookmarked and bookmarked and bookmarked -- so much that it's impossible to keep up with everything.

So, RSS feeds allow me to be notified when there's new content. Now, rather than me having to waste my time checking on the sites, I can check out the content in one place, only when it's updated. It's a huge win-win!

STEP 1: Get a Reader
RSS feeds are essentially code. You need a reader to be able to read them. Thankfully, a reader makes everything easy. There are several options, but I'm going to recommend Google Reader. There's only a few drawbacks to Google Reader (and, most of the alternatives have them, as well). The positives are enormous:

1. It's portable - you can access it anywhere
2. It's not going anywhere -- Google is here for the long haul
3. You have a lot of control over the organization of your feeds

As you can see from the image, I have my feeds organized into several folders - Jobs, Friends, Communications, Business Writing, etc. You control how to organize the feeds (and, it's pretty intuitive).

Next to each 'folder', is the number of unread messages in the folder (including all the feeds you've placed in there). You can also click on the + sign next to the folder to show all the individual feeds, and select just ONE of the feeds in the folder to view.

When you click on one of the folders, you'll get all the posts. If it's bolded, it's unread. Easy again. If you've clicked on the main folder, you'll see the feed name to the left of the post (so you know where it came from); if you select just one feed, that column is missing (obviously).

And that's it - that's all there is to reading in Google Reader. You can select to see a list (my preference) or a detailed look (where the entire body of the post is displayed). As you scroll down, you'll continue to load items (so you can see all the unread posts). I like the list because I can normally tell from the subject line whether I want to read the post. Once I'm done with a folder, I click on the "Mark all as read" button, and the folder is refreshed. Nothing is deleted -- you can always go back and hunt for something, or you can search using the search tool.

STEP 2: Start adding feeds
In the early days, it was hard to find RSS feeds, as there were several standards. Today, there's one icon, which makes it easy. If you're using Firefox as your browser (and, if you're not, you should be), 99% of the sites with RSS feeds show the symbol in the location bar (where the URL is located). The rest of the time, it'll be somewhere else on the page, but almost ALWAYS with this symbol.

Blogs, by their design have RSS feeds. Most older-established websites don't (but, I'm going to tell you how to work with them, too).

So, that's it - find content, add it, read it, enjoy. I'd recommend starting with this blog!

STEP 3: Organizing your feeds
Once you've added feeds to Google Reader, you'll want to organize them, so similar topics are together. This, too, is easy. On the bottom left of the screen is a link for "Manage subscriptions." You'll see a list of all your feeds. Pick one and to the far right there'll be a pull-down menu to "Add to folder." You'll select the option for a new folder, which you can then name. The feed will be automatically placed there.

You can either manually add all your feeds that way or you can drag-and-drop them in the main screen. Again, the emphasis is on simple. Always.

STEP 4A: Advanced Steps
So, once you've moved past the basics, you'll eventually come to crave content on pages that *don't* offer an RSS feed (and, yes, sadly, those sites do exist). What to do?

Well, there are three different options that should address MOST of the needs. They take a few steps to set up, but ultimately, they're easy enough to execute.

The first is Twitter. Twitter is a steady stream of information, from your friends. Interestingly, you can do a search for information and secure an RSS feed; and you can grab an RSS feed from your friends (but you can't get an RSS feed from a list; and, even the third-party apps won't let you create one from a private list -- just so you know).

You'll need to use another site -- FreeMyFeed -- to capture your Twitter feed. Obviously, you can't reply or post to Twitter from GoogleReader, but you can, quickly, read the posts and click the post to head over to Twitter to post or reply from there.

After attempting to add the feed to Googe Reader, copy the RSS feed text from twitter and then, head over to FreeMyFeed. Paste that text and add your user name and password. FreeMyFeed will generate a new, NON-authenticated feed for you, which you can then add to Google Reader.


STEP 4B: More Advanced Steps
And, what if you can't get an alert from the page? Again, there's a way around that, as well. And, it requires another service.

(Early warning: Google Reader recently launched a service that they claim will provide an RSS feed to any page that doesn't have one - don't believe the hype. It doesn't catch every change on the page, and it doesn't tell you *what* changed on the page; just that the page has changed. The jury is out on this one).

But, thankfully, there is another option. Copy the URL of the page you want to track (and, this is important, here, you're tracking the individual page, not the whole site ... so, if there's multiple pages on the site you want to track, you need to do this for each of them). Head over to ChangeDetection and sign up for an account. You can then follow the steps to add the page to be monitored. After you set up the page, select the "RSS only" notification on the next page before finalizing the monitor.

On the home page of ChangeDetection, in the upper left, under "My Account", you'll see a link for an RSS feed. Click on that, and choose to NOT have it password protected (thus cutting out the FreeMyFeed step). At the bottom, there's text for the RSS feed. Copy that text and - on the Google Reader page towards the top, under the Google Reader logo, you'll see an option to "Add a Subscription." Paste the text there and add your feed to whatever folder you want.

The best part of this - each monitor you have will generate its own post (so, you won't have to scroll through all the monitors ... each one is its own thread in Google Reader). When you access the notification, you'll select the option to "show the change log" and then, when you arrive back at the ChangeDetection site, select the date you want to check for (most likely, the most recent, if you're checking this every day).

What you'll see is a snapshot of the page with all the changes clearly marked. Additions to the page are shown in yellow; deletions are shown with strikethrough text. It's that easy -- instantly, you can see exactly what changed on every page.

I know this sounds confusing, but it's infinitely easier in practice. And, thankfully, more and more websites are using/embracing RSS technology. Another caveat, though -- this is useful for pages that are mostly static (for example, I wouldn't use it for twitter - the page changes way, way too often for this to be useful).

STEP 4C: The Most Advanced Steps
Okay - deep breath now. An earlier version of "social media" included mailing lists (like yahoogroups and LinkedIn (which, embarrasingly, is WAY behind the curve on RSS feeds)). I actually got in trouble for trying to secure RSS feeds from yahoogroups a while back, so I needed to find a new way to handle things, and -- thankfully -- I did. However, it doesn't involve RSS feeds (which are non-existent), so here's how I handled it...

I already had a gmail account. Obviously, I could easily set up multiple accounts for each subject (and I could have job-related messages go to one; and boardgame-focused messages go to another, etc.), but that means signing in and out of gmail repeatedly, and I like having a single sign-on.

So, I did create multiple accounts and used different email addresses for each 'type' of message (in other words, any message boards (LinkedIn and some yahoogroups) that focused on job-seeking has ONE email address; boardgaming-focused message boards use a completely different email address).

Within the new email address, head to "settings" and then, to "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" -- you want to enable POP for all mail. Once you've done that, you can sign out and head back to your main account -- you won't need to visit the old account again.

Now, in the main address, head to "settings" - first, go to "labels" and create a label for each type of conversation -- so, for me, I have "gaming" and "jobseeking." All you're doing here is setting up labels - one for each of the other email addresses you're using.

Here comes the tricky part. Go to the next tab, "Accounts and Import." Midway down the page, you'll see "check mail using POP3" - since you've already enabled POP on your other account, you can do this.

Enter your email address (you know this already), and hit 'next step'. On the next tab, you'll be asked for your password. The POP server for Gmail is "smtp.gmail.com" and the port is 995.

Leave the first box (leave a copy of the retrieved message on the server) UNCLICKED.
CLICK the second box (use SSL)
CLICK the third box and select the label you want to associate with this email address
CLICK the last box to archive the messages

When you're done, what will happen is this - every time a new message goes to your other email address, it'll be saved there. Once every 20-30 minutes (I think) your main email address will reach out to that other email address and PULL in any email that has arrived. When it pulls it in, it will automatically assign it to a label, it will place that mail into the folder with that label (which you can see from the front page) and it will archive it, so it doesn't hit your main inbox.

If you use a program like mailwasher, like I do, it won't show up, so your main inbox remains uncluttered. Then, much like an RSS reader (see how we come full circle?) you can check those other folders as you wish. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close; and I haven't gotten yelled at since then!

STEP 5: Enjoy!
And that's everything. With this tutorial, you can add RSS feeds, you can access email alerts through your feed reader and you can get RSS-like updates on changes.

For me, the impact has been major. Just in checking for jobs, I'll receive nearly 6000 job postings every week and I can get through them in about 20 minutes each day. These listings come from around 250 different sites ... it would be impossible for me to check them all each week without RSS feeds.

Remember though, like nearly everything else on the Internet, with the exception of Google Reader, many of these hacks/workarounds are flighty - they won't necessarily be around forever. Many of the tools touted by websites just 2-3 years ago are now gone, so keep that in mind.

Let me know how you like using RSS and Google Reader, and - by all means - let me know if you have questions. I've barely scraped the surface of what you can do with these tools; but the best thing you can do is just play around until you find what works best for you!