I’m a huge fan of RSS feed readers.
They’re the unsung heroes of the Internet and we owe how the current digital landscape works to these pioneers. Sadly, not many people know about them or how to use them.
I’m all about changing that.
What is an RSS feed reader?
Really Simple Syndication, as the name suggests, is not a complicated concept. By logging onto an RSS feed reader (previously web-based, but today usually an app), you’re able to see all of the new posts from your favourite sites. All conveniently displayed one after the other in chronological order, which is one of the main selling points for me as a user. That and the fact that they update in real time and without any delay.
So how do you do this? First, you have to subscribe to the RSS feed of a website. In the past, this was done directly by clicking a square orange icon. Nowadays, you have to locate the feed URL in the XML file found in the site’s source code. That’s it.
Why are they still important?
RSS readers might have fallen out of fashion, but they never truly went away. Developers have been hard at work to perfect the technology and their work has paid off big time.
In 2021, RSS readers can hold their own against most productivity tools out there. It really depends on what experience you wish to get out of your reader, but as a whole they provide users with a lot more features than when they started out back in the early 2000s.
In which fields it might be used?
Content writing
Let’s start with the obvious application. RSS feed readers were first designed for users to follow articles and are quite adept at organizing digital reading. Naturally, writers of all kinds find great use in readers as a tool. You’re able to keep up with the sites that give you useful material for your own writing. If you’re writing about tech, then you’d need to follow all major publications writing about tech. It’s quite simple really.
What makes RSS feed readers all the more appealing now more than ever is their shift from just serving as a catalog to discovering catalog. You’ll find all of the big names like Inoreader and Feedly with some sort of content discovery feature. Want to find new sources on tech? Inoreader gives you a list with top choices.
News
Journalists have a hard time. On one hand, there’s the threat of AI taking over their industry (there are algorithms out there that compose simple texts) and the demand for automation in regards to data journalism. On the other hand, the news cycle has gone out of control. Even by today’s standards. There’s just a lot to keep track of and the effect on the human psyche is palpable. Welcome to the horrors of doomscrolling.
That’s why RSS readers are a breath of fresh air. You can syndicate content from all the news sites and agencies you follow, filter out the topics you don’t want and see headlines in real time. If you choose Inoreader, you can use the Duplicate Feeds feature to reduce articles reporting on the same story and focus on the major pieces.
Education
Every studying guide you’ll ever encounter (and there are a lot) will tell you it’s important to study effectively and not study a lot. As education moves away from physical textbooks and classrooms, the need arises to have a tool that can help you organize your studying.
RSS feed readers are good tools for everyone. Students can use readers to keep their study guides and other helpful online resources straight, while collecting research on assignments. Inoreader is terrific in helping you add to your subscriptions without hassle. All you need to do is install the Chrome extension and subscribe directly on the site page.
Teachers can also benefit from RSS readers, because there are readers that can create customized newsletters and send them to their students.
E-commerce business
E-commerce is a business generating trillions upon trillions each year. In recent years, it’s become a viable form of business to act as resellers on Amazon and make money from the difference in the price you offer. Whether you decide to build it into a career or dabble as a side hustle, it’s a very fast-moving market and you need to keep track of a lot of deals on products.
RSS feed readers can effectively track new offers being posted in real time, which gives you time to react and make your move.
Influencers
Being an influencer comes with a rather fast-paced lifestyle. If you’re going to be an active part of the Internet’s very fabric, then you need to stay in step with the flow of information. There’s quite a lot to keep an eye out – other creators, emerging trends and also press coverage. RSS readers are a superb tool to manage all this content, because they’ve become adept at syndicating content from all content platforms.
Articles and forum posts are only the beginning. Now you can subscribe to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and podcasts all together. You literally have all of the Internet in one dashboard.
Digital marketing
RSS feed readers are excellent for small businesses, which otherwise would not have the budget for a lot of digital marketing processes. The current generation of RSS feed readers are adept at performing brand monitoring and social media listening. Whether you’re trying to establish your brand’s digital footprint or keep a close eye on the competition, RSS readers can be tuned into the perfect tool for any job.
There’s no end to how much you can filter and optimize your feeds in order to receive data in just the right way. Furthermore, you have additional integration options that can send important pieces of information to messaging services or save them in a separate app.
