To give a mouse some rest

Hey, all you bloggers and blog readers out there. I just wanted to post a little post about something called RSS. It stands for something, but that's not important. Hey, look over there!

While you're looking over there, answer me this: Do you, like me, tend to read a lot of blogs? You do? Really?

Now, does it bother you at all, like it bothers me, that you have to click from one blog to the next or that you have to go back to someone's blog in order to get to someone else's blog? Well, I don't particularly enjoy hopping back and forth between blogs, and that's where RSS comes in.

RSS allows everyone's blog posts to be collected into one central place for you to read, so you don't have to go clicking and clicking and clicking just to see what everyone is up to. Instead of you going to the blogs, the blogs come to you! Cool, I know!

Here's how to take advantage of RSS. You first need what's called a feed reader. I use Bloglines, and Google has a good reader, too. For Bloglines, you just go to bloglines.com and in the upper right hand corner, you register for an account, just like you'd do for email. Once you're registered, you can add "feeds" (those are the things RSS makes from your blog or any site, really) just by clicking on the "add" tab on the left-hand side of the screen and then typing the blog's web address in the center screen. You then choose which feed you want (it doesn't really matter which one it is) and you're off to the races!

For those interested, you can see all my feeds here.

You may think this is a lot of work initially, but once everyone starts posting, the new posts automatically show up in your reader, making staying up to date much easier and less time consuming. Plus, your dear mouse can take a breather from all the clicking you're doing now. So, give it a whirl and see if you like it. And, of course, your questions are always welcome.