How you can get ahead by using RSS

In every industry, the person/company with the most information is the person most likely to succeed.

In my industry, which is web site development, things move at a frantic pace, without continually gathering new information, it is inevitable that I will fall behind.

Information Overload

Without a doubt, the Internet is the greatest information source of our time, but rather than constantly searching the internet for new developments in our field, we should make the new developments come to us.

Everyone has a favored list of web sites. I used to check mine every couple of days. But what if some sites on our list have not made any new changes, what if some sites have added so many new articles that we miss a critical article related to my work.

RSS is the solution

Fortunately there is a solution, RSS. Using an RSS reader will ensure that you are kept up to date with all of the websites you respect. All the updates from a set of specified sites will gather in your RSS reader. Meaning you get everything you want from a single point, allowing you to see more information in less time.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="alignright" width="170" caption="Google Reader"][/caption]

There are hundreds of RSS feed readers available. Desktop based readers, Web based readers, Phone based readers etc.  The one I use is Google Reader and it is free to anyone. The reason I love Google Reader is because it is available anywhere.

I have one list of my RSS feeds which update my reading list, but I can read articles from this list wherever I am. Whether I am on my lunch break, on a public computer, on a friend's laptop or on my iPhone, wherever I have a spare 10 minutes, I can read through fresh articles from my favourite websites.

Sharing and networking

Google Reader also provides a few features to do more interesting things with the items I find. I can star them as important, email the link to a friend or share the article with my friends who also use Google Reader and this is where the system really comes into it's own.

Sharing links to interesting articles amongst my friends is so simple that it becomes second nature, finding out what my friends have discovered and have sent back can be even more interesting.

You can try google reader here.

I'd certainly recommend you give an RSS reader a try. Staying on top of the latest news is more valuable to you or your company than you think.