So I am really learning something here, or so I thought... I read about aggregators and the orange RSS icon and the thing that made the most sense to me was the Common Craft video RSS in Plain English
It explained that by using RSS it was the "new, fast way" of keeping up with blogs, and website updates and changes, and by subscribing I wouldn't "waste valuable time" by having to check each website I was interested in. It compared this to Netflix movies coming to my home vs. me driving to the video store to rent movies. Ah, the convenience of it all!
The explanation was even really simple...
Step 1) Signup for a free reader account
Step 2) Set up a connection between the reader (like Google) and my favorite websites or blogs
Step 3) Look for the orange RSS icon and click on it to subscribe
The only warning is that this can be addictive, so BE CAREFUL! Duh, like most any of these online Web 2.0 technologies aren't??? That's why we have a line of people waiting outside the door every morning to run to our free internet computers! I am very lucky to be in a job where I have access all day. ;-)
The irony about Thing #4, is that when I went to set up my Google newsreader, I discovered I already had one and I was following some blogs and didn't even know it. How cool is that?! I guess that is where the learning comes in... NOW, I can actually read and follow them, when I get some more time (after Thing #23, perhaps??)
