FireFox, ThunderBird and RSS

Earlier this year, I adopted FireFox as my browser of choice. Having enjoyed my experience with FireFox, I decided to also make the switch from my previous email client to the Mozilla email client, Thunderbird. I highly recommend both programs, but feel free to download them and see for yourself. Both are free of charge.

FireFox and Thunderbird have opened my eyes to is the wonderful world of RSS. If you're like me, you've heard the term bandied about and you've had people extolling at great length how it's the 'wave of the future' and 'RSS is the next big thing'. However, no one really explains, at least to my satisfaction, just what the heck it is and why it's a big deal.

So, using my newly adopted browser and email client as examples, I shall try to give a half decent explanation of why RSS is, in fact, the next big thing.

Using FireFox
Yesterday, I'm surfing through the internet and I came across a really interesting blog on Science Education and Evolution. In the old days, I would bookmark the site and I would return every day or two to see if there'd been an update. For newssites like CNN or slashdot, I could visit a dozen times a day, just checking to see what's new. More often than not, nothing since my last visit.

Nowadays, if the site has an RSS feed, a little icon appears at the bottom of my screen. If I click on this, I subscribe to the site's RSS feed. The site is added as a 'live' bookmark. Whenever there's a new entry to the blog, this bookmark is highlighted. No wasting time going from site to site to site checking for content. Now I just look at my bookmarks and see at a glance where the new stuff is.


Using Thunderbird
If you're like me, your email client is up and running every second your computer is. There are some things that you want, nay things that you need to know as they happen. News events, industry gossip, what your boss has to say in his online journal. Thunderbird allows you to receive RSS feeds much like you would receive emails. Whenever there's a new post on Slashdot or Seth Godin opines about something or my friend Debbie writes something new, the post ends up in a folder in my email client. I can see at a glance that there are two posts at Kuro5hin that I haven't read and that there's something up at BrandMantra.

When I visit a site and see the little orange button that says 'rss' or 'xml' or 'atom', I click on it, copy the URL, click the 'feeds' button on my ThunderBird toolbar and paste the URL. Budda-bing, budda-boom, instant access to all that site has to offer from the comfort of my email program

For those of you who are still scratching your heads and wondering what good any of that is... it's about organizing the information you need better and saving yourself time.

Just so everyone knows, currently I have a feed for the blog, but the next time I do a site redesign, I'll look into adding a feed for announcing the addition of new comics and art. The feed for this blog is at www.theelusivefish.com/blog/atom.xml or you can scroll down to the bottom and hit the big orange button.