Really Simple Subscriptions

I've always seen the appealing orange RSS logo on pages, but I wasn't quite sure what they were for or how I was supposed to use them.  Well after our discussion, I found that a reader application was required.  It was very simple to set up a reader with my google account.  I actually found the whole process very simple.  All I had to do was press the "add a subscription" button at the top and enter the link of a page I wanted sent to my homepage.

After adding all of my classmates blogs on my feed, their posts showed up on the main feed of updates.  The list showed up as a collection of new entries We talked about this in class and it really is a "new" way of browsing the internet for information.  There is a sense of excitement and reward I get when I check a page manually check a page.  The summer before college, a new album from my favorite band Muse was announced, and I checked the muse fan website every day over summer.  Every new post of information was like a sense of accomplishment for keeping up with the band.  Well, after subscribing to my classmates blogs on my RSS reader, I added Muselive.com and all the news entries were added to the feed in relation to chronological order.

RSS feeds are an awesome way to get personalized information for things that you actually care about.  The layout is great because I can scroll down the list of subscriptions and see what sites have put up articles in groups.

The whole new wave of social media has become subscription based.  You will see things at the end of ads like "follow us on twitter," and following that group is as simple as a click of a button.  Twitter will then send every post to your news feed.  From twitter, you can choose which groups' posts are sent to your phone through texts, making information about the things you care about accessible almost everywhere.

On youtube, when you watch video from a channel you are interested in, a hotlink will say "Subscribe!" and after clicking it will send all their videos to your subscription feed.  It just makes everything very convenient.

Freddie Wong is the head of an independent film crew that makes short action films on youtube. With out a publishing company, he has earned over 900,000 subscribers and every film his crew releases gains from 1 million to 11 million views. He gives you the option to retweet the video in the description. Here is one of my favorites, a parody on made for TV films, "Beach Justice."



I loved this video. I showed my friends, posted it to my Facebook, commented and read the comments. This video has almost 3 million views. Freddie Wong is an example of how to use the viral aspect of the internet and social media. At the end of the video, there is a list of recent popular videos they have released, and at the end of the video's description is a link to his twitter, facebook and webpage. The viral aspect of the internet is amazing. Freddie Wong is a talented no-name with no backing companies who has become moderately famous through just word of mouth on the internet.

With the new technology of viral re-tweeting, forward to phone texting, subscriptions, news feeds, RSS readers, and the ease of youtube videos, the "new" searching for information on the internet is here.