This year, Travistrek has an rss feed freely available to anyone who would like to use it but, what is it? Lets start at the beginning:

RSS = Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. (depending on who you ask) Me? well, I just call it "rss" and don't care how people interpret the abbreviation. Life is too short to worry about such things? :)

The orange square is the usual icon for an available rss feed. Sometimes it can also be a small orange rectangle with rss written inside it and unless you are brand new to surfing, you have no doubt seen these all over the web on cool websites. Travistrek has one at the very top of the page in both graphic and text only versions of the site. If you are using the Firefox browser (and you should be!) then you may have already noticed this rss icon in your address bar. It looks like this on mine:-

image: firefox address bar showing rss feed :

When Firefox detects that a feed is available, it places this icon in your address bar like above. If there is no feed available on a visited web site, well, it's not there, so basically this icon appearing lets you know that a feed is available.

The new version of Internet Explorer (V.7) can now also use and detect feeds and although the rss feed icon is not on the address bar like in Firefox, you can find it on one of the toolbars underneath the IE address bar. When there is no feed available in IE, it is "grayed out" that is to say, It's not orange! When there is a feed available in IE - guess what? yep, It's Orange! See, you are getting the hang of this already. :)

image: rss feed as seen on Internet Explorer :

Ok, so now I know what to look for but, what the devil do I do with them now I've found one?

Good Question!

I have been using feeds for a couple of years now but, I'm going to admit to you that there was a long time where I used to say "what is the point of these feeds?" - "If I want updated information, I'll visit the bloody site, surely?" - "Where are the benefits?" etc etc but, I soon realised that I had these questions because I really didn't understand their power. What we want to do with them is get the constantly updated information and news that they all provide and have it delivered in a single place where they are easy to find and use.

Getting these feeds delivered to you.

Predictably, there is more than one way to "get" the feeds and the content they provide delivered to you but, I'm only going to mention a couple here. - Using "your browser" and using a dedicated "feed reader"

Ok, so what are you interested in? I'm going to use Snooker as an example as I'm a keen snooker fan. So how can rss feeds help a snooker fan like me? Well, the BBC snooker website has fantastic content and everything they have is right up to date so I often go there for snooker news. Eurosport website also has good snooker news and they tend to use different reporters and I go there to get a different point of view on a story. Lastly, I tend to go to the Scotsman Newspaper website and check for more snooker stories there.

As sad as it is to me as a web developer, 75% of visitors to this web site still use Internet Explorer so I'm going to use that as the example here.

>>> Using your Browser:- lets go!

I open my Internet Explorer and I'm faced with my usual google home page and I decide that I want my Snooker fix. So what would that entail? Well, I'd have to go to the BBC then the snooker section and scan up and down all the stories to see if there was any new ones that I hadn't read yet. Damn! My link colours have all reset to the one colour and I can't see at a glance which ones I have read already! [tut]

After a few minutes there and realising that there were no new stories, [sigh] I pop off onto Eurosport to see if they have anything that the BBC may have missed. Oh yes! There are two new stories there so that was good. Let's go to the Scotsman newspaper site now and try there...

What a palava that was!

Wouldn't it be good? [starts to sing Nik Kershaw classic track] - Wouldn't it be good if when I opened my Internet Explorer on that google home page, if Internet Explorer would go and check all these sites for me and look for new snooker stories and just give me the links to them? Save a good bit of time wouldn't it? Oh yes it would! - Oh no it wouldn't - oh yes it would!

What if I regularly checked 15 different sites for snooker stories eh? I mean, how long would that take me? Gee whiz! I have things to do ye know? If only all the new stories came to me like little ants to a picnic. Hmmm, I wonder what could do that? Any ideas? Oh, c'mon folks, as Rolf often asked, "Can you tell what it is yet?" - Yep, you got it! - RSS FEEDS

Subscribe to them then lazybones!

When you see that orange rss icon letting you know that there is a feed available for one of your very favourite and most often visited pages, then you should subscribe to it by clicking that icon and choosing "subscribe to this feed". (does exactly what says on the tin folks!)

After you do this with a few feeds and when you now open your Internet Explorer page, It will run around like a madman to find all the new stories for you in the blink of an eye and you wont even have to say "thank you."

image: all feeds collected by Internet Explorer :

Just hover over those feeds and IE will tell you if there are any new ones and if so, how many new ones. Click to read - It's as simple as that and as much of a time saver as you are now thinking it is. Super eh?

Firefox is great at this too and it even loads all the stories straight into your wee little feed button like this:-

image: firefox loads new stories straight in :

>>> A dedicated feed reader.

Alternatively, you can get a dedicated "feed reader" separate program in it's own right that works on the exact same principle as your browser but, it delivers it to you in a much better fashion. One particular good "free feed reader" that I used at first was the unbelievably named "feedreader" [however do they think these names up?]

It's a really good feed reader that you will find instantly familiar as it uses the same layout as Outlook Express and similar programs. You receive your feed info just like emails now and new content arrives like a new email does. Superb! Now you don't have to keep checking the technology section on the BBC every 5 minutes while you are at work to see if they have found a cure for baldness yet as they will now let ME, errr... i mean YOU know as soon as they have one! [ahem.. cough]

Hey! If only they had feeds and emails together in the one program.

Funny you should mention that - they do!

The program I now use is Thunderbird. It's made by the same folks that make Firefox and it's excellent. All my emails, feeds and newsgroups all in the one application that automatically searches for new content and then informs me when it finds any and you'll never guess what - IT'S TOTALLY FREE! ..and if I was an American, I'd be telling you that it's "like totally awesome dude" too.

image: thunderbird in action :

Ok, I've got the idea now and it sounds good but what does a speeding feeding reading expert like yourself do with all these feeds then?

Ah grasshopper, I see you are still in need of much guidance eh? Ok then, how about this? Do you ever shop on Ebay? I do.

I'm a bit of an outdoors guy as well ye know, and i'm always looking out for a good deal on a certain type and make of tent. I used to check ebay at least once a week (when I remembered) for a good deal on this tent. I'd go to the home page then do a search for this tent and scan through looking for a bargain. - Note that I said that "I used to." Guess what I do now? [ooh, I'm gonna wager on this having something to do with feeds]

Yep, I went to Ebay and did the search for this tent, just the once. When the results were displayed, I went down to the bottom of that page and clicked the rss feed for that particular search and copied and pasted it into my Thunderbird program. Now, ANY time that ANY one lists that tent on Ebay - I get informed! - How bloody cool is that? Not only do I not need to surf anymore but, now I don't need to shop anymore either.

Can you imagine Argos knocking at your door one wet afternoon and telling you that bathroom cabinet that you once looked at 6 months ago is now back in stock? <localdialect>Ye just canny beat it!</localdialect> Constantly feeding without getting fat. (that'll get the weight watcher googlers to the site once google grabs this page hehe) What more do you want?

Get feeding and reading then.

So what are you waiting for? Get subscribed to the Travistrek feed by clicking on your browser feed button or by copying and pasting the URL http://www.travistrek.co.uk/rss.asp into your favourite feed reader program and when we update this site with a new announcement or story - We'll give YOU a shout.

Enlightened?

I hope this article has helped some of you to understand feeds a little better. It really can change your "online habits" (is that what virtual nuns wear?) and save you lots of time. If you have found this article useful, can you please show your appreciation by helping Scott raise funds for the guide dogs for the blind and donate even just £1? You can send a donation in many ways.

At the very least, send Scott and Travis a good luck message through the Shout Box further up this page on the right hand side. Thank You.

Red..