Greetings from the web cave!
Nowadays, you would think getting an idea across the web would be easy enough with so many forms of communication available. There's email, forums, newsletters, chats, instant messages, and more. In the more advanced world of the web you can even communicate in the form of pictures, videos, podcasts... the list goes on! But in the overabundance of mass mailings, interactive advertisements, and not-so-official newsletters, how can we stay up-to-date without being misinformed or overwhelmed?
Don't get me wrong; I love getting the latest deals from my favorite stores. I look forward to other sites' monthly newsletters and their articles. It's just that sometimes I don't want to sift through the forwards from my siblings to find the one coupon for 20% off the one product I need to have, or that great recipe I saw last week. If only there was a way to get updates and specials in a simpler form that's easier to manage.
There is a solution, in fact. And it's so easy, "simple" is its middle name. I'm talking about RSS, a.k.a. Really Simple Syndication.
You may have heard about RSS in passing. Maybe you've seen that little orange square and thought, "Gee, that looks cool... what does it do?" Picture this: all the latest news from the New York Times laid out in a list of headlines. Simply click on the one you want to read. No fuss, no flailing, just find it and click on it like an electronic table-of-contents. RSS is even nice enough to sort chronologically, so the latest updates are always at the top of the list.
Let's talk about how you view this list.
There are many ways of viewing an RSS feed, from browsers to email. If you're using a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer, you'll be brought to a web page with a list like I mentioned before. You'll see a brief description below each headline so you can choose the ones you want to read, and the date and time of when it was posted. You can bookmark this page for viewing later. The best part? This page automatically updates.
How does this help you stay in touch with us?
Whole Latte Love actually has two RSS feeds. One for this blog, and one for our entire site, both located on the right-hand side of our site. Look for that little orange button and subscribe! Each time a new blog entry is posted, the RSS page will update with the latest entry at the top. If you subscribe to the Whole Latte Love website RSS feed, you'll be kept up to date on the latest specials and newest articles, all without having to search through the site for them. It's like someone already cut the coupons for you!
Want a fancier way to get your RSS updates? You don't have to stop at web browsers. Next time, I'll talk about other ways to control how you see the feeds. It gets even simpler from here.
