RSS is your new surfboard.

It has been brought to my attention that I may need to explain RSS feeds a little better, and provide some information on how to use them to your benefit. RSS ( and its rival format Atom ), like HTML, is an internet language. While HTML is the foundation behind the web pages like this one, RSS and Atom are used in a slightly different way.

What's so special about an RSS feed? Well, for one thing, RSS feed readers use a sort of timer, controlled by user preference, to automatically retrieve information from the internet. Subscribe to a feed, and you will be given automatic updates of information, in short bursts of text or HTML format.

Like HTML, RSS requires a browser, of sorts. Some browsers, like Mozilla Firefox, already support RSS in the form of "bookmarklets", which work very much like bookmarks. I find it more convenient to use an aggregator, such as RSSOwl to sort through feeds in a more intuitive and comprehensive manner.

Simply install RSSOwl, then copy the atom links from the front page of this blog into the URL bar, just as you would in a web browser. If you like the feed, you can bookmark it. This is called "subscribing" in the world of RSS. From then on, RSSOwl will notify you every time I post an update to this blog. That makes it much easier, and more time effective to surf the internet. You won't need to continually check websites for updated information. The RSS feeds will check for you, as frequently or infrequently as you like, then give you the new information.

I use this process for every website that I can, now. All of my friends blogs are on my aggregator. All of my favorite news sites, new movie listings, billboard music ratings and even a dozen or so google searches that I want to check on from time to time can be completely automated with one or two clicks. You'll be amazed at the amount of time you save, and at the fact that you'll never miss anything important on the web again.