Make the News Come to You

Have you been wondering what those little orange rectangular boxes are that seem to be springing up all over the web and on your favorite blogs these days? Maybe the box is labeled "RSS" or "XML", but either way, you may have been too busy hopping from site to site to find out what that orange box is all about. Go ahead. Click on it. One click and the contents of that orange box will totally change your world. I exaggerate somewhat but the orange box can put the joy back into your web life, especially if you have found yourself spending far too many hours going to visit every single website for research and each blog you enjoy.

RSS is usually said to stand for "Really Simple Syndication" (and sometimes said to stand for "Rich Site Summary"). It's a type of data file (an XML file, to be exact) in which each piece of data in the list--a headline, a description of a story--is coded separately so that a program will know exactly what to do with it. Programs that know what to do with RSS files are called "feed readers" or sometimes, "feed aggregators". Content published in an RSS feed is typically set up to notify users whenever new content is available.

Acronyms aside, it matters less how RSS works and more what it can do for you. RSS feed readers allow you to subscribe to feeds that you know contain important or useful information and your feed reader will notify you immediately whenever new content for your subscriptions is available. So, once you've identified a useful resource that publishes an RSS feed, you can pretty much skip searching for it altogether. Translation: you no longer have to visit each source site individually or take affirmative steps to visit the site. You have saved valuable research time. Because the feed contains alerts, headlines, summaries or excerpts, you can review a large number of sites in a short time, opening the links to the full text of articles only when you are interested or affected. Congratulations! You are saving time and working with large amounts of information more efficiently.

To get started in the world of RSS, you will need a feed reader or aggregator. There are dozens of feed readers available and new ones appear regularly. They all have the same basic features. You just have to find the one(s) that best suits your individual preferences. They are all free to try out. The real difference between feed readers is whether they are stand-alone or web-based services accessed through your browser. Standalone feed readers allow you to access your feeds even if you're offline. One feed reader, Newsgator, even integrates into Microsoft Outlook, making your feeds virtually indistinguishable from your email. By contrast, web-based services require you to be online to access your feeds. Here is a short list of some useful RSS readers:

• Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) , an online or Web-based aggregator, is often recommended as an easy way to get started in RSS. It's free and works with most popular web browsers.
• FeedDemon (http://www.feeddemon.com), is a stand-alone feed reader that comes pre-configured with a number of popular feeds. It is free to try; $29.95 to purchase. Its now owned by NewsGator.
• Google Desktop (http://destop.google.com), is a stand-alone application that requires Windows XP or Windows 2000. It is free to download and use.
• My Yahoo (http://my.yahoo.com), is web-based, runs in most popular browsers and is free to use.
• NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com) Offers both a free online feed reader and a for-pay desktop-based version that integrates into Microsoft Outlook. The Outlook version is subscription-based, with several different levels available. Pricing starts at $19.95 per year.

After you have fired up one of the feed readers, you need to subscribe to certain sites from thousands of choices. A 2005 study from Yahoo and Ipsos shows that the two most popular kinds of feeds people are reading are world and national news. Take your pick from the likes of The New York Times, ABCNews.com, MSNBC, BBC, ESPN, CNET News.com, Christian Science Monitor, Wired News, Salon, Slate, or Google News. These days you can easily monitor, on a daily basis, a dozen of the most well-known newspapers in the world. You simply plug in the addresses of the RSS files you want.

There are now hundreds of law-related feeds available. To locate feeds, you may want to start at Blawg.org (http://www.blawg.org), or the Blawg Republic (http://www.blawgrepublic.com). These sites list hundreds of weblogs that focus on the law and various legal issues. Subscribe to one that meets your interests and you will get regular posts that are relevant to your practice.

So, what's stopping you? Click on that orange box.