Rashmi's Spectacular Guide to RSS Feeds!

So if you're like me, you spend an awful amount of time on the internet checking out blogs and news sites and whatever the hell is out there on the internet. And if you're like me, there are a lot of sites you visit. So how does one keep up with all of them?

RSS Feeds! Instead of having to visit each site individually to see when updates have been posted, you can use an RSS reader to send all the updates to one central location. You subscribe to a website's feed, your RSS reader checks for updates, and then you just check your RSS reader for updates. It's super easy, so let's go through this step-by-step.

1) Find an RSS Reader

I use Google reader cause Google is the shit. Besides, most people already have gmail accounts so you won't have to sign up for anything new. There are other RSS readers but I have no idea what they are. You could Google it though :-p

2) Subscribe to RSS feeds

Look for RSS icons on websites. This is the RSS icon.

If you use Mozilla Firefox, all you need to do is look for that icon at the end of the URL address bar.
If you use Google Chrome, add this extension and then look for the orange icon at the end of the URL address bar.
If you use Internet Explorer, click here since the process is a bit more work.

Assuming you use Firefox or Chrome (which you should, cause they're awesome browsers!), just click the orange icon and then click "Add to Google Reader" or "Subscribe to this feed using Google Reader".

That's it! Now you can...

3) Check for updates

Visit reader.google.com to see which sites have posted updates. The ones with updates will be in bold in the left column.

Wasn't that easy? All sorts of sites have RSS feeds too - news, fashion, cooking, technology, photography sites, and so many more! Now you can waste countless on your computer with ease! This is what my Google reader looks like after only one day. Hopefully yours will never be that insane. If you need a head start on subscribing to blogs, these are some of my favorites:

Cake Wrecks - exactly what it sounds like
Discoblog - non-techncial articles about interesting science/technology around the world
Engrish Funny - foreign countries English translation mistakes
Everything is Terrible - videos that are so terrible, they're hilarious
The Pioneer Woman Cooks - great recipes with photos to help you along
Project Rungay - fashion commentaries from two fabulous gays
Tony Yang Photography - wedding photography and sensual women's portraits

And of course there's always my own blog. Rarely updated, but still out there. :-)