Everything You Need to Know About RSS

No doubt you've noticed the appearance of those orange symbols that look like this:




all over your favorite websites. Sure, you've probably heard of RSS before but if you're anything like our mother -who insists she has an LSD cable attached to her computer - you may be somewhat fuzzy about exactly what all the hullabaloo is. And it's not just the older folks who are in the dark. We asked some 20-somethings we formerly considered tech-savvy about RSS feeds, and they too were at a loss. 

RSS stands for 'Rich Site Summary' and is sometimes called 'Really Simple Syndication,' neither of which mean anything to us. Simply put, RSS allows you to receive the latest content from your favorite sites right as it's updated, without checking your email. With RSS, you'll have all the most recent posts from all your favorite sites right there on one convenient page. It's like building your own newspaper, with content that only you choose.

RSS has other advantages.  If you have a sensitive spam filter on your email inbox, you probably have difficulty receiving a lot of newsletter subscriptions and information that you actually signed up for. Well, there's no need for spam filters with RSS because you only receive the content you subscribe to and absolutely nothing unsolicited.

You may not be getting our emails at all

And Airfarewatchdog subscribers take note. Some internet service providers sit on emails before passing them on to you (sometimes for an entire day!), and corporate email systems are notorious for blocking emails. Indeed, we've been having major technical issues with the company that sends our emails, so sometimes they don't go out at all. That means that by the time you open one of our messages, some fares could be sold out or otherwise unavailable. This stuff is time-sensitive, so the quicker you have access to it, the better. With RSS feeds, you see the info as it's posted, immediately.

Multiple City Alerts

Another cool thing about RSS is that now you can get fare data from as many airport and city areas as you like. With our email service, you can only choose one.

How to begin

Ok, so how do you get this RSS of which we speak? Well, there are many options, but two of the most popular are NewsGator and Google Reader. Let's start with NewsGator, shall we?

As you sign up for NewsGator, you have the option of choosing "starter pack" subscriptions from popular sites such as the NY Times, ESPN, the BBC and so on. Of course you don't have to select any of these, and can continue to subscribe to your whatever you like. Just a heads up though: NewsGator has taken the liberty of checking off a few of their own news channels for you, so make sure you de-select those checked boxes if you're not interested. Just click on Finish and move on to the next screen where you can subscribe to your own content (ahem, like airfarewatchdog.com) at the top left corner by clicking Add Feed. Next, you may feel bombarded with choices. You can browse by category (like business, travel, weather...) for things to subscribe to, or look by entering a search term. There's even an option at the top called Smart Feed where you can enter a particular search term and receive content from any site that contains that search term.

For those who know exactly what they want to subscribe to (ahem ahem, airfarewatchdog.com) just click up at the top on URL & Import.

OK, so here's the part where you enter the URL of the site you wish to subscribe to. Now, for airfarewatchdog, you can subscribe to as many airports as you like. Go to the airport page you're after, let's say for example Ft. Lauderdale, click on the orange RSS symbol, and you'll be brought to a page with a lot of tech gibberish called the document tree. Copy the URL for that page from the browser and paste that into the Feed URL in NewsGator to set up your subscription. Click Add Feed and voila! You can peruse all the latest low fares from Ft. Lauderdale and simultaneously stay abreast of the Anna Nicole Smith trial.

 Then there's Google Reader, our personal favorite. Once you sign up and verify your email address, you're ready to begin. From the My Services options, choose Google Reader. Here, you'll be greeted by a video tutorial on RSS from a Google engineer. Choose Add Subscriptions and get started. Google offers something called Feed Bundles, which is basically the same as NewsGator's "Starter Packs," just suggested sites that you can subscribe to. But, if you know what you want to subscribe to (ahem, airfarewatchdog) you can just click on Add Subscription and paste in the URL for that page. As we mentioned, we love the Google Reader. The display is cleaner and user-friendlier than other sites. They don't overwhelm you with subscription choices, like the NewsGator Starter Pack, or trick you with pre-selected content. We suggest you give this one a shot first.

We bet you'll love RSS and we strongly urge you to use it rather than relying on email, a technology which is increasingly being spoiled by spam and other issues.