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How Gamers Can Leverage RSS

What is RSS

What is RSS?

Surprisingly many gamers either aren't aware of RSS or don't understand the value of RSS. In order to rectify this problem I decided to create a post that not only explains RSS but demonstrates its power. I feel that once gamers recognize it's power they'll be subscribing to sites like N4G.

What is RSS?

Lets begin with a definition of RSS:

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.


Before RSS, in order to keep track of updates on a website you had to use traditional bookmarks in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added. Thankfully that is now a thing of the past. RSS aims to eliminate the drawbacks of traditional bookmarking.

Drawbacks of bookmarking

  • You waste time checking a site to see if anything has changed
  • Managing a bunch of bookmarks can be annoying and confusing
  • If you don't check regularly you can miss out on time sensitive information
  • As the user/reader you had to do all the work yourself

The beauty of RSS is that it brings the latest content you want, to exactly where you want or need it most. For example, if you want to keep up to date on whats happening at N4G.com you can subscribe to one of many RSS feeds. Once you subscribe you'll be automatically notified of anything that changes on our site. For another example think of your favorite game. Now I imagine if it's a game your passionate about, your going to want to know the latest news and information about the game. A great way to stay informed about the game is to subscribe to an RSS feed that the game's website publishes.

Stuff gamers want to know about ASAP

  • Upcoming game patch
  • New maps or other DLC
  • Upcoming game expansions
  • League/Ladder/Tournament Information
  • etc.... This list could go on forever, point is there is plenty of news you want to stay up to date on as a gamer

Now that you understand the value of RSS, lets put it in action so we can demonstrate its power. The best way to utilize an RSS feed is to get yourself a "RSS reader". When it comes to RSS readers there are tons of options. You'll need to figure out which option is most convenient for you. For the sake of this post I will demonstrate one of the more popular options.

Google Homepage

Gamers surf the web for all kinds of information. Whether your searching for news, reviews, videos, guides, etc, the search engine your likely using is Google. You may or may not know but Google now offer a customizable homepage. This is a very powerful feature if you use search engines often like many gamers do. Basically what it allows you to do is to tailor your homepage to exactly the way you want it. Once configured, every time you go to do a search on Google your taken to your custom homepage. You can see an example of a Google homepage configured with RSS readers here:

As you could probably guess this is a great place to have an RSS reader. That way every time you do a search on Google, you have right there at your finger tips, the latest information from your favorite websites. On your Google homepage you can add to it what is referred to as a "gadget". One of the available gadgets is an RSS reader. So when you subscribe to a feed you can add it to a gadget on your homepage.

Now I hope this cleared up some of your questions about RSS. Also I hope that you too can now take advantage of the power of RSS. For an additional example of a site that is worthy of your RSS subscription check out Noobspeak.com

Tempist6316d ago

How does one subscribe using IE 7?

MrFragtastic6316d ago (Edited 6316d ago )

If your subscribing in a web browser it shouldn't matter whether its IE7 or Firefox. Just follow these steps:

1.) Create a Google Account
2.) Go to a site you want to register on like: http://www.noobspeak.com
3.) Click on the RSS icon on the site.
4.) When your taken to their RSS Feed page( http://feeds.feedburner.com... click the add to Google button that has a '+' symbol next to the Google Logo.
5.) Then choose 'Add to Google Homepage' Button
6.) If your logged in it will add the feed to your Google Homepage, if your not already logged in then you have sign into your Google account.

70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

Read Full Story >>
simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio2d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing2d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster922d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit2d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing2d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster922d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

Show all comments (13)
40°

Games Done Quick is coming to Europe for the first time with 3 days of Gamescom speedruns

The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.

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Report: Injustice 3 in Development at NetherRealm Studios

Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.