I have recently become an avid Stumbler on Stumble Upon. I’ve “had it” for a while but just started using it. Maybe I’m the last person to find this site ( or saw it back in the day and just now watched it ) but this is a cool site: http://www.eightprinciples.com/ . I like how the flash is done. Simple and minimal with a nice use of color and typography. I think you will enjoy!
Image from www.myflashresource.com
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,2000562391b,00.htm
There was a good article today from SiteProNews that did a good job explaining the Basics of RSS by Werner Schamberger. Below are some clips from that article that I think explain it pretty well and shows the benefits to you.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Maybe it should be RIS for Really Intimidating Syndication. RSS is used to publish and publicize updates from a website ( or blog which is really the same thing ). It is intended to give readers a brief taste of the content on the website so they don’t have to dig through pages and pages of content to find something that interests them. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the content and a brief summary as well as a link to the content.
Benefits of RSS
1. It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site, you can learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.
2. It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.
3. It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe to in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.
4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.
5. It is sp@m free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from sp@m mails.
6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user is asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.
7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe to or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending sp@m mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.
There are of course disadvantages which will be outlined in a future post.
So, you’re ready to start using RSS…..
You are going to need two things to get started: An RSS Feed and an RSS Reader. The feed comes from an RSS-supported website ( sounds simple right? ). The RSS Reader is used to display the content via the contents source code. Blogs are a natural selection because they most always contain a build in RSS Feed. You can add RSS Feeds to any website with a little XML or help from a source like FeedsForAll.com.
Now, if your webserver supports PHP there is a very easy tutorial you can follow here.
More sources for easy RSS implementation include:
Easy RSS for All with FeedForAll and Easy RSS Content Generator
If you have questions…just comment!