Introduction to RSS and News
Aggregators
1
Reading Blogs
• OK: As a Web page
– Must visit multiple
sites to check for
updates
• Better: Via a RSS
Feed
– Updates delivered to
you
– Read multiple feeds in
one place
2
What is RSS?
• Rich Site Summary or Really
Simple Syndication
• Format for Syndicating Content
– Updates distributed to
subscribers
– Viewed with RSS reader
• RSS Tutorial: What Is RSS
(LawLib Tech)
3
RSS Readers
4
Analogous to E-mail Application
• E-mail message is to
Outlook as RSS feed
is to Bloglines
5
How to use
• Click on “subscribe”
link, XML or RSS
button on blog or web
site to get the URL for
the feed
• Subscribe to the feed
with a RSS reader
which displays it in
readable format
6
A.K.A.
• RSS aggregators
• news readers
• news aggregators
7
Free Readers
8
Web based
• MyYahoo
• Bloglines
– Tutorial movie
• Pluck (Web or I.E.
Plug-in)
9
Software
• FeedDemon
• FeedReader
• RSS Bandit
10
More (Mac, cell phone,
Blackberry)
• RSS Compendium
• Open Directory
11
RSS Feeds Other Than Blogs
12
News
• Newspapers
• Custom News Alerts
– Feedster
– Google News
13
Law
• Dockets & recent
opinions
• Journal tables of
contents
• Government agency
news & info
• Copyright
• Legislation
• More: TVC's RSS
News Feeds for Law
14
Business
• SEC Filings
15
Podcasts
16
Drawbacks
• Can't easily reply to
posts
• Posts not saved –
unless you save them
• Ads and spam
coming?
17
More Info
•
•
•
•
•
Valerie Potter, Getting Started
With RSS
Mitch Wagner, I Came, I Saw, I
RSS'd
Larry Magid, RSS: The Web at
Your Fingertips
Robert J. Ambrogi, What RSS
Can Do for Lawyers
Thomas Claburn, Order From
Chaos Via RSS
18