Really Simple Syndication

Do you RSS? I'm all about it. I love it. I'm addicted. I saw the possibilities of RSS as soon as I first heard about it, years ago.

Basically, every news source, blog, photostream, and social site on the internet sends it's content out in a basic form, pictures and text only, to the wide world. All this information is collected, 24/7, by news aggregators, and you can subscribe to these feeds so that they are delivered right to your digital doorstep. This is called RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication". RSS feeds give you a constant source of new and timely information, customized for your individual tastes.

For instance, here are a few RSS feeds I subscribe to:

CNN Top Stories
All of my friends blogs
Various Apple Mac news sources
Various Photoshop and Lightroom blogs and news pages
The Onion
The daily Dilbert comic strip
Urban Word of the Day
Wired
Engadget
Gizmodo
Mashable!
The Nation
Feeds for many of the apps I use that relay news about updates
Epicurious New Recipes
App Advice: Best iPhone Apps
NPR book recommendations
Roger Ebert Movie Reviews
Factcheck.org
Various backpacking magazines and sites
Various photography sites and blogs
WebMD Health
Blogs from some of my favorite scientists and biologists
The Daily Beast
Amazon Hot New Blu Ray Releases
And more...

Yes, it's a huge amount of information, but with practice you'd be amazed at how fast you could scan through it. So now I never miss any piece of news that relates to my job or hobbies. In fact, I often find the most amazing stories and articles, some so remote or obscure that I would never have run into them any other way.

It's the whole internet, funneled through a firehose pointed right at your brain.

There are many ways to read RSS feeds: I have mine organized with Google Reader on the web, but I have a Mac program (NetNewsWire) that brings them all up in fancy form on my desktop. I also use Byline on the iPhone to get the same feeds. And when you read an article on one device, it's marked as read on all of them through Google Reader. Nifty stuff!

The downside of RSS is that you only get the content, not the window dressing. So for those of you who have additional content on your blogs off to the side (you know who you are), I always make sure to check the actual page every now and then.

One word of warning: if your mind is susceptible to information overload, you will probably be better off not diving into the world of RSS...it's addictive and unrelenting.