This morning I will talking about RSS readers as the web has changed the way we research, read, write and publish information. Once you start poking around blogs, flickr, and the like you quickly have problems with ‘keeping up’. Before RSS, users had to visit individual web sites to find out what was new. You no longer have to click from blog to blog to see if your favourites have published anything new. With an RSS readers newly published content is delivered directly to you, using an aggregator or reader. Their main advantage is that they save you time as using an RSS reader is a efficient way to read and keep abreast of your research interests.

I will be discussing RSS readers with my class this morning but RSS in Plain English produced by Commoncraft neatly covers the mains points

Most RSS readers are free to use, and easy to learn. You can subscribe to key news media outlets such as the BBC, or Reuters, as well as non-news sites such as for instance Flickr, podcasts, video podcasts, or Apple’s iTunes Music Store. When an aggregator is opened it is much like an email program.