1) RSS stands for really simple syndication. It aggregates new articles and items from various websites into one central location for the reader to view systematically.
2) An RSS feed can be subscribed to by clicking on any one of the many RSS icons on a webpage, or clicking the RSS button on the right side of the URL form in the browser. Additionally, an RSS feed can be obtained from a link (, or in a bundle from Google.
3) I subscribed to the Google feed sports bundle.
4) I didn’t like the cluttered interface on the left hand bar, although those user options can be customized by closing or minimizing those sub-menus. I feel that Google reader is a very simple, straightforward RSS reader. However, it is not especially simple or friendly, despite its clean organization. Additionally, I can see that RSS feeds have convenience in mind, but there is a lot of information that still has to be filtered out.
For example, I subscribed to the Google feed sports bundle, and I was inundated by NASCAR news and Jimmie Johnson. I couldn’t care less about NASCAR, I don’t think it’s a real sport and I thought Jimmie Johnson was a brand for sausage. So while Google made it easy for me to subscribe to a sports feed, there was still a lot of junk that I didn’t want. In order to customize what kind of information comes into my Google Reader, I probably have to subscribe individually to a whole lot of different subcategories, and then “set it and forget it.” I’m wary of this method as well, however, because if I made my feed the go-to source for information I would probably mentally close myself off from other new and exciting sources of information, not to mention interesting blog posts on blogs that I’m not subscribed to. RSS has an excellent intent, but I probably have to play with it more and I’m sure there are better refinements yet to come.
5) I subscribed to the Local News feed of the Mercury News RSS.
6) None of the other feeds really gave me any trouble for subscription except for the comedy central website. On that website, I looked on the sitemap page and found the RSS link.
Finally, here is my song of the week:
