Real Estate Technology Coach

You’ve probably seen this icon around, but may or may not have known what it was all about.  It is an RSS icon.

RSS Who?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  Think of it as a subscription to a web site where you get the information when it’s updated instead of you having to keep checking back.  Here’s a very popular video that explains what RSS is.

Google Reader

I like Google.  I find many of their products very easy to use, fast and best of all FREE.  Google Reader is no exception.  It is an RSS Feed reader.  There are quite a few feed reader programs out there, but I will be teaching you about Google Reader.

The first step is to create a Google Reader account.  If you already have a Google account (Checkout, GMail, iGoogle, etc) you are already setup, just login here.  If you don’t have a Google account, register here.   You can use any email address you want.

When you first login, you should see a screen that resembles this one, except for all of the subscriptions I have:

I’ll come back to some usage tips here in a moment.

Adding Feeds

If you use Firefox, you’re in luck.  In the address bar, any time you visit a site with an RSS feed, you should see the RSS icon.

The first time you click on the icon, it will take you to a page resembling this one:

Choose Google from the drop down and check the box, then click the button.  Now, any time you try to subscribe to a site, it will automatically put it into your Google Reader.

If you’re unlucky enough to still be using Internet Explorer, switch to Firefox.  Okay, you don’t want to change.  I’m warning you, it’s not as easy.  Here’s a video showing how it’s done.

Feedburner

You may see the word “Feedburner” floating around as many bloggers have opted to use this service to make subscribing to an RSS feed even easier.  If you run across it, you’re in luck.  Regardless of your browser, subscribing in a variety of programs just got easier.  If you click on the “Subscribe in a reader” link over on the top right of this site, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this:

Click on any of those feed readers on the right and you’re good to go.

Google Reader Usage

In Google Reader, press the Shift key and the question mark at the same time.  You’ll get all of the shortcuts right there.  I personally only use 3.

In a future article, I’ll cover some of the other neat features of Google Reader, but now you have the knowledge to get started.

To stay on top of Real Estate Technology subscribe to my RSS feed!