If you use a browser and you are addicted to more than a handful of blogs, then you are probably familiar with the routine of continuously checking the websites to look for updates. I used to do that too until I discovered the beautiful efficiency of RSS readers.  You can read more about RSS here. An RSS reader will regularly check all your subscriptions for updates. If there is an update it will even download the content(*) so you never have to use your browser.

There are several RSS stand alone readers. Some browsers also have built in RSS readers. You can even use google to read an RSS feed. I believe that you can also use google to search for websites using keywords, but I digress. To subscribe to this blog go to the upper right corner of the page and click on whatever option looks most appealing. You can even subscribe via email.

(*) For some inexplicable reason some sites only provide a partial feed e.g. the first 200 words or maybe not even that. My guess is that the site owner expects people to go online read the post with their browser instead. I think this is highly inconvenient, so if a blog only has a partial feed, I cancel my subscription and rarely return (why bother when it is so much easier to read other blogs via RSS?). There is in fact only one blog where I make an exception and that is Daily Speculations because it is simply too full of insights to ignore even it it is annoying to have to click through.

Originally posted 2008-12-11 16:22:16.