Google Reader Brings RSS Feeds to the Masses   - 1,464 Views, 1 Comment

Welcome to Google Reader. Google Reader is an RSS feed reader that brings RSS feeds to the average citizen. RSS feeds, or “web feeds”, as some call them, are basically a signal to your computer that there is new content available on a site which you like to read. That signal is detected by a program called an RSS feed reader or “RSS reader”. The RSS reader polls each site you like to read (you give it a special URL for this purpose), and if it notes that there is new content at the site, it alerts you to the new content, typically by displaying the title and the first few lines of the content in your RSS reader.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”.

Now, most RSS readers require you to either provide the URL for the site you want to read, using the URL for that site’s special “RSS feed”, and some allow you to search out RSS feeds for regularly publishing sites. Most familiar are the RSS buttons on blogs and news content sites such as the Internet Patrol (ours is in the upper left-hand side of this window).

But Google Reader, typical of Google, goes at least one step further. Google Reader allows you to search and find RSS feeds for any computer which is connected to the Internet and which publishes a web feed.

So far, the reviews are mixed. But that’s the case with nearly all of Google’s offering. If you’ve drunk deeply from the well of Google Kool-Aid, they can do no wrong. Others feel the opposite way. Those of us who have no emotion vested in either loving or hating Google can take some of their services, and leave others. Google Reader is no exception judging by the reviews it is engendering, and only time will tell how it places in the RSS reader market. But the price is right, and it’s fairly easy to use. So take it for a spin, at http://www.google.com/reader/.