ContentRobot

NewsGator is another popular and free news reader (although you can sign up for more premium services).

Sign up

1. Access NewsGator here.
2. Click on the “Sign Up” button on the home page.
   
3. Enter a username, password, first name, last name, and email address. Also, click the checkbox to agree to the Terms of Service and then press the Next Button.
   
4. Choose your subscription level (Standard / Free is already selected) and scroll down and click on the Next button.
   
5. Select your starter packs or individual feeds (what feeds you’d like to see) and then click on the Finish button.
   
6. You will be taken to your “Web Reader” page and your subscriptions will be listed in the left column.
   
7. Click on a feed name to view posts.
   

Read the Entire Post >

Register with My Yahoo!

1. Go to My Yahoo!.
2. Click the “Sign Up” link in the top left corner. (If you already have a Yahoo account click “Sign In” and skip to the “Adding a Feed to My Yahoo! using the + My Yahoo! Button” section below.)
   
3. At the next screen, click on your interests, then click Save. (You’ll see the page being “built” in the on-screen preview.)
   
4. On the next page, click on “Sign Up” to save your interests.
   
5. On the registration page fill in the form:
   
• Your first name
• Your last name name
• Choose your Yahoo! ID (you’ll most likely have to check its availability)
• A password
• Whether you want a Yahoo! mailbox (a good idea, you can get your mail from anywhere)
• Password retrieval hints (this area has you put in your birthday, zip code, and optional alternative email address)
• Customize by industry, title, and specialization
• Verify your registration by typing in the code they display
• Agree to the Terms of Service (you should at least skim it)
• Click on Submit this Form Securely
6. This page indicates that your registration has been completed. A copy of your registration gets sent to the email address you have provided.
   
7. Click on Continue to My Yahoo! to see the page you created. (Remember, in the future, you will have to use your created Yahoo! ID and password to access your information at My Yahoo!)

Adding a Feed to My Yahoo! using the + My Yahoo! Button

1. Make sure you are signed in to your My Yahoo! page.
2. In a new browser window, go to ContentRobot.
3. Click on the + My Yahoo! Button
   
4. You’ll get a preview of the feed.
5. Click the Add to My Yahoo! button.
   
6. You will get the message “This source has been added to My Yahoo!”, then click on the “Go to My Yahoo!” link.
   
7. The new feed will now appear at the bottom of your My Yahoo! page
   

Adding a Feed to My Yahoo! using the Add Content Feature

1. Make sure you are signed in to your My Yahoo! page.
2. Click on the + Add Content button
   
3. Next to the Find button, click on the Add RSS by URL link
   
4. Type the URL (web site name, www.tunevroom.com, for example)
5. Click on Add.
   
6. You’ll get a preview of the feed.
7. On the Yahoo! screen, click the Add to My Yahoo! button.
   
8. You will get the message “This source has been added to My Yahoo!”, then click on the “Go to My Yahoo!” link.
   
9. The new feed will now appear at the bottom of your My Yahoo! page
   

Signing up with Bloglines is free and easy - only an email address and password are required.

How to Register with Bloglines

1. Go to www.bloglines.com.
2. Click on the Sign up now link.
   
3. Enter your email address and a password. (Make sure that you type in a correct email address as they will send you an email soon to verify your account). Read the Entire Post >

Subscribing to News Feeds

Have you ever seen icons but didn’t know what they were all about?

These point to XML (Extensible Markup Language), or special Web coding for RSS (Really Simple Syndication) that describes a new type of Web information called a “news feed.”

Essentially, these feeds contain a summary and links of any new content on a Web site or blog (or anything else a creator desires to share). A company may publish an RSS feed that contains news of its latest products, for example. When a website has an RSS feed, it is said to be “syndicated.”

How do I Receive RSS Feeds?
The first step is to install an RSS reader (also known as an “RSS aggregator” or “newsreader”). RSS readers are lightweight software programs that allow users to scan dozens, even hundreds, of fresh headlines a day. They are, for the most part, free for the taking.

RSS readers allow you to scroll through cleanly organized headlines and story summaries (an executive summary of the net!) that has little to no graphics and advertising. When you find a story you like, you click it to view it. Not interested? Just keep scrolling without clicking and waiting for a site page to load.

This software may be a standalone program such as Bloglines or integrated into a program that you already use, such as Microsoft Outlook. My Yahoo! even has an RSS module.

The Advantages of Subscribing to Feeds

• Speed Reading the Internet – You’ll have hundreds of resources at your fingertips. Like many people, you are using the Web as your main source of news and research. If you’re a veteran, you may have hundreds (or maybe more) bookmarks to help you keep track of it all. RSS readers can help you save time because you no longer have to hop from site to site to get your news and information.
• Automatic Updates – An RSS reader automatically updates itself with the latest items from the sites you tell it to watch, so it’s always fresh. You no longer have to access your favorite sites and constantly click “refresh,” to know what’s been newly published.
• Minimizes Spam – RSS gives you control over receiving information you want without revealing information about yourself. Unlike subscribing to an e-mail newsletter, you never have to give out your e-mail address with an RSS feed. That avoids the possibility of receiving spam or unwanted junk e-mail from the Web site.
• Customized to Your Preferences – RSS allows you to receive news and information on the subjects you want. The result is a targeted or personalized news experience, giving you greater ability to tailor your consumption of niche and micro-niche topics. A sports junkie could subscribe to a feed for the Tour de France or a favorite baseball team. A job-hunter could subscribe to a feed for openings in digital media. A medical editor or relative of someone with MS could receive RSS updates published to a health database.
• Instant Alerts – RSS can serve as an alert service. Instead of using e-mail, you might want to customize your news reader to deliver news on an important subject every 15 minutes.
• Read Feeds Anywhere – Because RSS feeds contain just links, headlines, or brief synopsis of new information, it means the small amount of Web data can be sent to any XML-compatible device - a cell phone, pager, or handheld computer - without a lengthy download process.

What’s Next?
In the next series of posts will tell how to download some of the popular ones and how to find feeds that may interest you (and how to subscribe to ContentRobot in each). By the end of the week, you’ll be an RSS pro.

One of the most highly touted features of the Web 2.0 era is the rise of blogging. Personal home pages, personal diaries, and personal opinion, have been around since the early days of the web, so what is the fuss all about?

RSS Extends Web Page Viewing Away from the Browsers
It used to be that web browsers were the only way for people to view web pages. Now RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology extends that capability. RSS aggregators can be web-based (like Bloglines), desktop clients, and even portable devices allow you to subscribe to constantly updated content.

RSS is now being used to push not just notices of new blog entries, but also all kinds of data updates, including stock quotes, weather data, and photo availability.

Permalinks Point the Way Toward Discussion
But RSS is only part of what makes a weblog different from an ordinary web page. The permalink (or the ability to click through to the entire post’s page) effectively turned weblogs from an ease-of-publishing phenomenon into a conversational mess of overlapping communities.

For the first time it became relatively easy to point directly at a highly specific post on someone else’s site and talk about it. Discussions, chats, and friendships emerged or became more entrenched. Therefore, the permalink was the first - and most successful - attempt to build bridges between weblogs.

The “blogosphere” then can be thought of as a new, peer-to-peer equivalent to Usenet and bulletin-boards, the conversational watering holes of the early internet. Not only can people subscribe to each others’ sites, and easily link to individual comments on a page, but also, via a mechanism known as trackbacks, they can see when anyone else links to their pages, and can respond, either with reciprocal links, or by adding comments.

Web 2.0 Harnesses Collective Intelligence
An essential part of Web 2.0 is turning the web into a kind of global brain. The blogosphere becomes the equivalent of constant mental chatter or voice we hear in all of our heads.

The blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect because search engines use link structure to help predict useful pages, and bloggers (as the most prolific and timely linkers) have a disproportionate role in shaping search engine results.

Considering what Wikipedia does, blogging then harnesses collective intelligence as a kind of filter or what James Suriowecki calls “the wisdom of crowds” or Dan Gillmor calls “we, the media.”

What it Means for Your Blog Efforts
Your blogs, which will evolve into a multi-authored, broad channel collaboration site, where it becomes your focus group and spokespeople for your brands. Because they are leveraged, not a regurgitation of the web site content, you’ll get input, reviews, shared pictures, etc. as you control and manage the conversation.

Adapted from Tim O’Reilly’s What Is Web 2.0