Learn about blog syndication and RSS feeds

by Sarah Granger

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If you've always wanted to be a newspaper columnist – or even just wanted to express your views to other people – you should know about blog syndication. Likewise, if you like to be kept in the loop about certain topics, you'll want to subscribe to a news feed.

Last century, only those in the publishing business could expect to gather a reading audience for their thoughts. Today, since the advent of the Weblog or blog (Web sites dedicated to providing regular articles on a topic or set of topics via a journal-like format), it has become common to syndicate blogs because they follow a similar pattern to newspaper columns, but in a computerized format online. Now anyone can syndicate their own writing online. With a few simple tools, syndicated content can stream onto your computer or phone. It's quick to do and available to all. They're read through programs called news readers or feed readers. Here are some basics.

Defining feeds and RSS

A "feed" is the text that is sent from the source of the data to your reader. It might also be called a "channel" or "Web feed." Take the New York Times for example. They have several blogs, each of which can be syndicated. If you subscribe to one of those blogs' feeds, every time a new article is published or every time you open your news reader, it will download the latest articles from that blog.

Blog syndication is so simple, the most commonly known term for it is RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS, according to Wikipedia, is "a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries". Atom is another standard means of syndication developed as a result of some incompatibilities found in RSS. Atom tends to be used more by newer feed aggregators. For most users' purposes, there's not much difference: They format the articles for transmission across the Internet to the news readers.

For bloggers who want to setup syndication for their blogs, syndication requires action from two places: the blog management software (usually a Web site service) and the feed producer. The most common blog services are Typepad, WordPress and Blogger and the feed is provided by a service such as Feedburner. Feed validators are another type of software that can check the feeds to make sure they work well. Syndication (via a feed) is relatively simple to setup through those services, and anyone who wants to sign up can do so through their blogs, news readers, or through the feed Web site used to configure the feed.

News readers

News readers are great tools for aggregating a wide variety of news sources, so they can be scanned and read quickly as opposed to surfing from one Web site to the next, one blog to the next, waiting for all of the graphics and ads to load. Used often, they can save hours a day in terms of online research. Most popular news readers are Bloglines, NetNewsWire, Feed Demon, and the relatively new Google Reader. Some browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2, also read RSS feeds.

The news reader software works by pulling the feed from the blog in the role of a data sharing device. The author of the feed owns the content, but those who wish to view the articles/feeds are permitted to read them through the reader and disseminate as they see fit. News readers work for any online syndicated content – news Web sites, newsletters, blogs, and journals. The news readers will also allow users to email articles to other people. They usually limit it to 30 or so posts from each feed in order to keep the amount of data traffic minimized in the download transmission, but for the majority of users and feeds, that number is fine.

If a news reader isn't already present on your computer, they can be easily located and downloaded. Once installed, most come with a few basic feeds installed. Then it becomes easy to subscribe to the feeds from the blogs. Just look for the feed logo (orange icon) and click on it on the blog, and the news reader will automatically subscribe you. (Most likely, it will bring up a window that allows you to approve the subscription, and then it will begin the download.)

News readers generally list blogs by name or order of subscription, and then have another window or split window that shows the posts for whichever blog or news feed is selected. Post/article names are shown in addition to the post's publication date and/or time, so users can see how recent the stories are. If feeds aren't being read, stop publishing new information, or need to be removed for whatever reason, the removal takes little to no time. News readers really are one of the gems of Internet technology.

Other tips on blog syndication

Along with blog publishing software, feed aggregators and news readers, searching for blogs and syndicated content has now become easier as well. Google now allows you to subscribe to a blog search feed through their Google Reader, and Google has a blog search at blogsearch.google.com. Other popular blog search sites include Technorati, IceRocket, Sphere and Blogdigger. Technorati, for example, also lists blogs by popularity for people looking for more trafficked blogs on certain topics.

With all of the incredible information available on the Internet now and with hundreds of new blogs being created every day, it can be overwhelming to keep track of even the smallest collection of news sources. However, with the software available now for downloading, reading and disseminating feeds, the challenge of sifting through syndicated content is much less daunting. Don't forget, though, to install security controls to help prevent unwanted spyware from being installed while you investigate all the Internet has to offer.