using the internet 101: RSS readers

A lot of people seem to be unaware of the fact that an RSS reader is probably the most essential program to install on your phone or PC, right next to a web browser and an email client.

An RSS reader allows you to to do a very simple thing: subscribe to any website, news feed or blog and regularly receive all the new articles from those sites. This is how you stay up to date and receive the news that matter and are important to you.

RSS is supported by any modern website: from Mastodon user profiles to Pixelfed photo feeds, Youtube channels, Subreddits and users, blogs as found on Substack, WordPress.org or individual websites, scientific journals, and the list goes on and on. In the past often websites featured RSS logos to signal support for it. But nowadays it has become a core technology and goes without mentioning.

Simply put the URL of the website or user profile into your RSS reader and you are subscribed.

You can then have a quick glance at your RSS reader on the loo and don't have to check any website by hand.

People who do not use RSS readers basically live under a rock.

That's really all there is to it.

This page or post was last modified on 2023-08-02 .