Digesting Information
Keeping afloat on the receiving end of the torrent of information surging through the internet pipe can seem like trying to swim under the Niagara Falls.
One could, of course, seek quieter waters, but for those who want or need to manage as much information as possible, a newish technology offers a lifeline.
It's called RSS, ( Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who's talking ) and more or less works by channelling that information through dozens of smaller pipes.
RSS is a format based on a specialized markup language, and is used to offer a digest, summary, or 'feed', of a website's content for users.
Those users, armed with a piece of software called RSS readers or aggregators, can scan that summary, often presented in heading-paragraph form, and follow links to the fuller versions of items which interest them.
These aggregators can read summaries from dozens, or even hundreds of website sources at a time, and present them in a manageable fashion.
Thousands of these 'feeds' are available, offering users
an almost unlimited choice as to which to receive. Websites
offering this feature usually advertise it by use of small
orange icon.( 
)
Many major international news organizations, including
The New York Times, the BBC, ABCNews, MSNBC, ESPN, CNET,
News.com, and Wired News, as well large internet presences
such as Amazon.com, now offer RSS feeds.
Along with that embarrassment of choice, the range of topics for which there are feeds is huge, potentially turning your modest home computer into a flexible, personalized, and high-powered information hub.
With a little tweaking, using these aggregators you should be able to wade through much more information in the same time as you would using a traditional web browser, such as Internet Explorer.
That partly because the aggregator can show you at a glance whether that website offers fresh content, without needing to wade through old content as you might in a browser.
Because the different sources can be grouped by subject, you have mouse-click access to a huge range of items on that subject, a range which you can also customize to your tastes by adding, dropping, or combining sources.
Another advantage is that only the textual content, with no distractions such as ads or images, is displayed, which in turn means reduces download times.
So since RSS readers seem to be the next best thing to free internet, let's look at test-driving some of them. A list is available, but if you want to avoid leg-work, here's a rough consensus on the better news readers out there.
For Windows users, there is FeedDemon ( my favourite at US $29.95 ) , FeedReader( free, with few bells and whistles ) , or NewsGator (US $29 ) , which uses Microsoft Outlook and appears as links in that email client.
Macintosh users are probably best served by NetNewsWire ( US$39,95 with an elegant interface ) , while there is Straw ( free ) for Linux, and AmphetaDesk ( operates through a web browser ) , which works under all three operating systems.
Of the above readers which aren't free, all have trial versions, so that you can experiment with features until you settle on one.
Many of these aggregators come with inbuilt lists of feeds, but you can also add your own from RSS directories such as Syndic8 or NewsIsFree.
Once you've done that, you've got unrivalled easy access to a huge width and depth of information, piped through according to your preferences, and updated as regularly as you could want.
Happy wallowing.
March 21, 2004
site by Urban Legend Designs