Maybe it’s because I’m a product of the ‘Internet generation’ or the ‘iPod generation’ or ‘Gen Y’ or the ‘YouTube generation’ or whatever trendy generation that old men on CNN are labeling college students this week, but I can’t concentrate on anything.

Whenever I boot up Firefox (if you don’t use Firefox, you damn well should, if anyone reading this still uses Internet Explorer you should be aware that you’ve downloaded 17 viruses, nine pieces of malware and 36 spyware agents since reading this sentence) I always have multiple tabs open. My e-mail, digg.com, a plethora of news Web sites, dinosaur comics, etc. It’s worse if I’m in class – then I need two more tabs: one for a game and one for Blackboard in case my professor walks by me.

The point is this: the Internet and Web sites aren’t meant to be viewed one at a time or used linearly. When you click on the link in an article, for example, you don’t stop reading and switch to a new link. You read a quick blurb and switch, or wait till you’re done, or open in a new tab, window or whatever.

When I read online, I speed read. I jump around stories, click through my different open tabs and look for quick bites of info. Granted, I’ll read the occasional 5,000 word story online, and I’ll spend up to an hour on certain sites when I’m in the mood.

But during the day, when I’m busy, I don’t do that, which is why I love RSS feeds.

Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, is probably something you’re familiar with, even if you don’t know how it works. It’s the same technology that lets iTunes know when a new podcast is available, the same as what tells your Yahoo! or Google homepage to update with new info as soon as it’s posted.

The great thing about RSS is that it’s a flexible format, you can receive updates via a RSS reader, a Web site like My Yahoo! or iGoogle, a widget or gadget in OS X or Vista, embedded on a Web site, or even through e-mail.

RSS feeds generally give you a short snippet of a story or blog post, but can give more. Some feeds supply embedded videos, full posts, photos and more.

The reason I love RSS feeds is because they collect all the content I want, from every Web site I could possibly be interested in, all in one place. For me, that’s my iGoogle homepage, but for others, it’s an RSS feed aggregator. But the delivery doesn’t matter, it’s that the RSS feed makes receiving information a lot easier than browsing to each of the 15 or more news sites I read daily and clicking through to find what I want.

RSS saves a lot of time when you’re trying to catch up on your favorite Web site or blog in between (or during) class and is easy to use. Either find yourself an RSS feed reader (also called an aggregator), or get a My Yahoo! or iGoogle page for free. Or, if you’re using Firefox, RSS reading is already built in through ‘Live Bookmarks.’

People don’t want to take their time when using the Internet, they want things instantly, and they want to know all they can about something in the shortest amount of time. RSS feeds aid Internet users in this ‘need for speed’ by giving vital information quickly and in a short amount of time. Everyone wins.

RSS readers aggregators and websites

Google Reader: This is Google’s RSS web application. The best thing about it is social features, which allow you to easily share feeds and posts that you like with friends, family, etc.

iGoogle/My Yahoo!: Different from Reader, a Google customized homepage is completely populated with customizable feeds, the same for Yahoo!

Mac OS X/Windows: The Mac operating system has RSS built into it, whenever you get a Widget or Gadget for your dashboard, it’s essentially an RSS feed.

NetNewsWire: A favorite among Mac users, this free program is integrated phenomenally into OSX, sporting a great interface familiar to Mac users. The downside? It doesn’t work with Spotlight (the Mac search tool).

NewzCrawler: Despite the egregious use of a ‘z’ where an ‘s’ should be, NewzCrawler is highly ranked for Windows users, for its multiple frame viewing style, allowing you to see your feeds, their updates and the page they came from all at once.

AJ Chavar is the tech columnist for The Daily Orange where his columns appear every Tuesday. He can be reached at ajchavar@syr.edu.

Published on March 4, 2008 at 12:00 pm