Let the news, latest music, videos and whatever you like follow you to your mobile phone, laptop, or to the desktop of your office/home computer. Gone are the days where you had to check the Internet for the latest updates about scholarships or scores of your favorite football club. Perhaps I should also point out that most Internet users settle for a set of favorite sites that they check regularly. Without the Feeds, typically you would regularly have to check the different sites for new content and news.
RSS, also known as Feeds, is a short form for Really Simple Syndication and provides a technology where you choose the news you want to receive. You can filter the news by category and the frequency to be updated. Some Feeds deliver the entire content to you while others deliver teaser text. A teaser text is a summary of the news to entice you to read the full article. Feeds not only provide you with a smart way of surfing the Internet, but also keep you updated while saving a lot of time. That is, instead of looking for the same information on a regular basis, the information actually looks for you.
Although not yet widely adopted, all modern sites support Feeds where you can subscribe. Take a simple example of news website such as BBC, CNN or SOCCERNET, whenever the news are updated, a summarized version of the news, called a teaser is sent to you. Similarly, when you subscribe to facebook, or Photo sharing site, the new photos are downloaded to you. Unlike other technologies, you have the news delivered to you.
But the greatest advantage of Feeds comes from the ability to choose and combine news from multiple sources. This capability is called aggregation and there are specialized tools called Aggregators. Aggregators allow users to combine and let content follow them anytime anywhere. This is opposed to checking 50 or 100 sites every day. Feeds provide an effective way to filter and organize the vast amount of information from the Internet. With Aggregators, you can set parameters such as how often they should be updated. Once you have aggregated your Feeds, you simply check the Aggregator or Reader for your customized news.
Feeds have rich applications in other areas such as distance education. Imagine a situation where students are notified on their phones whenever new content is posted. This form of interaction improves the e-learning experience. The Feed technology can also be extended to agriculture
The experience with Feeds is that you do not miss your favorite updates and are able to save time, generally keeping you informed anytime anywhere. Moreover, Feed technologies are cheaper compared to Short Messages Services, where you subscribe to a certain short code number and your are charged for each content.
*This article first appeared in the newvision, the Ugandan government owned newspaper on may 26 2009 titled “Feed yourself with news anytime”*
