Using RSS Feeds to Your Advantage

I’ve been fortunate enough to do some traveling recently around the Bay Area. While there, I took the BART system and overheard a conversation unfold that went something like this:

Guy #1: You see (Steph) Curry tear it up in the (basketball) World Cup?

Guy 2: Nah, I don’t have time to follow basketball. Baseball is still going and football just started!

Hard to argue with Guy #2 — it’s hard to justify scrounging every day for every single scrap of news, sports or otherwise. Even on the weekend the 24/7 news cycle makes keeping up difficult. With headlines shifting throughout the day, it is easy to miss what was front page worthy material in the morning by the time noon rolls around.

The simplest way for me to stay in the loop with things I find important, from work relating things to baseball happenings to the latest news is simple: I use RSS feeds. For what it’s worth, if more feeds ever switch from RSS to Atom — particularly podcast feeds — I would switch as well, but until that happens, I’ll be content with my RSS feeds.

The beauty of RSS feeds is you get to pick what you want to read. Rather than getting a glut of news from a front page, you can slim the results down. Only want MLB updates from ESPN? No problem. Strictly a hockey fan? Easily done. You’ve probably seen the RSS symbol (pictured above the title) all over the place but perhaps paid much attention to it. Maybe you overheard your office nerd — yes, I am absolutely my workplace’s nerd — mention RSS feeds in passing and brushed it off. Big mistake, as RSS makes life easier by doing all the work for you, simply read the desired articles from your RSS reader.

After the now-fallen Google Reader (a moment of silence, please), Feedly has since become my de facto RSS reader of choice. Feedly is free to sign up, (Feedly Pro is an available subscription service) and is a very intuitive and easy-to-use system.

You’ll need a Google account of some sort, the most common of which is a gmail account, and then you can get up and running in no time. Once you’ve signed up for a Feedly account, it’s time to pick what you’d like to read. Predictably my RSS feed is mostly sports and entertainment, with some news and tech mixed in. Hovering ones pointer over the toolbar on the left-hand side brings up a menu displaying each category header. Within each header you’re able to add or remove specific RSS feeds. Displayed below is my baseball category, showing FanGraphs, RotoGraphs, MLB Trade Rumors and Razzball.

If you were to click on the “Baseball” header you’ll see every article from those four websites. You’re able to choose which display version you prefer your content in, be it Title Only (it looks like email), Magazine (my preferred method, displayed below), Cards (three articles displayed in rows), Full Articles (something I don’t recommend, as sorting full articles is clumsy) and Grouped By Feeds (sorting first by website as well as by chronological order).

While it lacks specific timestamps, Feedly does show how many hours ago a particular article went live and separates different days automatically. For a broader scale, you’re able to view every feed simultaneously via the “All” option at the top of the toolbar. If there are certain websites you deem as can’t miss, you can add them to the “Must Reads” section. I am by no way a film junkie/movie buff, however I do like being up to date on industry news there. I subscribe to the RSS feed for Moviefone news, yet I don’t have it under my Must Reads. Sites such as FanGraphs, MLBTR, a StarCraft II site and a few others fall under my Must Read categories, as those are my biggest interests.

The iOS version of Feedly is more than adequate for reading most things and the one drawback really isn’t the apps fault. It is hard to fault the app for the small screen size. The app displays your Must Reads as well as anything you’ve saved to read later plus each category header and individual websites. It allows for searches, customization to existing lists and you can easily search for new RSS feeds.

My biggest — and really my only — gripe with mobile version is how each feed loads. Rather than scrolling through a long list of articles or posts, iOS only loads four at a time in Magazine view or five at once in list view. In order to read older posts you have to swipe up to find your desired article and without any page number, unless you specifically remember “oh yes, it was four swipes” or how long ago the article was posted, it makes searching for previous articles a pain.

There is no doubt RSS (or maybe someday Atom) feeds are something I wouldn’t want to go without. By customizing your interests and hobbies it gives relevant news, specifically for you, on your computer or in the palm of your hand. For the convenience of receiving breaking news on any subject, RSS feeds do wonders for those of us who are looking for extra minutes at the end of the day.

(Header photo via Lars Plougman)