How many news websites have you been to where they are regurgitating the same pointless story about a celebrity junkie who died six months ago?

Is there a way to preview headlines without wasting valuable time visiting all of your favorite sites each day?

Yes there is…And if you’re not using the RSS feature then you may be missing out on a very useful time saving tool.

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, but what does that mean? It means websites that have this option (like this one) offer the option to send you their new/current content without you having to visit the website on a daily basis.

It’s almost like having a newspaper/magazine send you updated information at all hours of the day. And it’s a great way to keep up-to-date on information from the companies you deal with without having to receive their emails.

Secret advantage!

One unspoken advantage is that an RSS feed provides you with more security than email. If more people used RSS connections they wouldn’t have to worry about phishing email as much. It’s like having a direct line with the company. People can’t send you RSS feeds, which means you are in control of the information that comes to you.

The reason this hasn’t been widely adopted yet is because many people have no clue what RSS is or how it works. And unfortunately, there are still some issues with RSS feed consistency. Hopefully this post will change all that for you.

No more programs please!

Early on, I tested many of the downloadable software solutions available called RSS Feed Readers. They all look almost exactly like your email program and this turned me off. It felt inefficient to have two similar looking programs open on my desktop. Eventually though, I found a solution I really liked.

I use the iGoogle home page as my default home page every time I open my web browser. iGoogle allows you to add RSS headline lists from your favorite sites so that you can quickly scan over them every time you open a new browser window. Google also offers a separate tool called Google Reader, but I found that the iGoogle Home Page feels much more visually organized for me.

Plus if you have a Gmail email account you can take your favorite website feeds wherever you go, even if you aren’t on your own computer. Nice huh?

So how do I set it up?

To get an idea of what this looks like, go to the Google homepage http://www.google.com – More than likely it will be in Classic Mode, you can switch to iGoogle Mode by using the link in the top right corner where it says iGoogle | Sign in.

Once you click iGoogle you’ll see the page change where there are now a bunch of boxes (called Gadgets). Scroll down and get familiar with the layout. You can move the boxes around by clicking on the blue area at the top of the box and drag to reposition them on the page. Scroll down and you’ll see the CNN list. That is exactly what their RSS feed looks like.

In the CNN Gadget you should see the most recent top three headlines. You can get a quick synopsis of the article by clicking on the plus sign next to the headline; or you can visit the site directly by clicking on the headlines that interest you. If you want to add more headlines, click the triangle in the top right corner of the Gadget. Choose Edit settings and change the Show Items dropdown box to your preferred number, then click Save.

Let’s add a new RSS feed to your page!

I will be adding video instructions shortly…