More blog-reading how-to tips

One advantage of a blog over a typical basic website is that your computer can help you to know when something has changed on the blog. Pretty much everyone has a set of favorite websites on the Internet that you visit on a regular basis. It goes something like this.

• Visit website A
• Visit website B
• Lather, rinse, repeat

The problem is that you have to visit each website to see if anything is different. If the site has a sophisticated structure like CNN or ESPN you might have to make several clicks to get to the content that really interests you, only to find that nothing has been updated. You could try making a bookmark to the specific content you want to check each day, but sometimes your bookmarks will point to content that no longer exists or is no longer being updated.

Blogs solve this problem by publishing a special file as part of their content which is called a newsfeed. It may be referred to as an RSS file or an ATOM file. Generally it is always accompanied with a button or text that says "Subscribe to Posts". On our blogs this link is always at the bottom right of the page. A newsfeed is a computer-readable file that describes the content of the blog. Every time a new post is added to the blog, the newsfeed file will be updated. You could think of the newsfeed file as sort of a digital library card catalog that has an entry for each and every entry in the blog, and it is always up to date.

Newsfeed files are very small and can be downloaded quickly compared to the content that may be in the blog. Our podcasts average about 10-15 MBs in size but the newsfeed file that describes all of that content is 15KB. Or about 1,000 times smaller. Newsreader software keeps track of these files when you subscribe to a blog. It compares the downloaded copy on your PC to the copy on the site. It then can decide if new content is available and can download it automatically to your PC (or even your IPOD)

So what happens when you click on the Subscribe to posts link on our blogs?

If you are running a recent copy of MS Internet Explorer or Firefox they will give you a chance to subscribe to the newsfeed using the idea of a bookmark or favorite in the browser. They will even update the list of bookmarks automatically for you. You typically still have to open the bookmark to see what has changed. Also they tend to not help you remember which posts you have already read.

The next better option is a web-based news reader. Google Reader is an easy one to use, here is how to subscribe to a blog in Google Reader

1. Go to the blog in your web browser.
2. Find the link or button for subscribing to the news feed
3. Right-click over the link and pick "Copy Link Location" or "Copy Shortcut" to copy the address into your browser.
4. Open a new browser window for Google Reader
5. Sign in with your Google account. If you don't have one you can easily create one for free. Most people who already have a Google account tend to use Google's free email service
6. Click Add Subscription and paste the address of the blog newsfeed into the provided window.
7. Google Reader will add your blog to the list of blogs that it monitors on your behalf and will display the latest entries of the blogs. It will also keep track of which posts you have read and which posts you have not read.

A good newsreader will make it very easy to see what has changed at a glance and will give you the option of what to read. I hope, of course, that you will read all of my posts, but with a good reader you have the option to skip the ones that look to be boring.

On my next post I'll show you how to fill up your Ipod with Tony's sermons.