There are millions of websites out there on the Web, and not all of them are updated regularly. Anybody who uses the web, with any regularity, has dozens of favourite websites, and checks each one periodically for updates. And anyone who uses the web, with any intensity, knows the frustration of either checking one website repeatedly and seeing the same material, or checking one website one day and seeing some information several days old, that you would have benefited from, if you had seen the information sooner.
So what to do? Originally, folks who ran websites that really wanted visitors would get an email address from each visitor. Periodically, or when they had written a particularly interesting article, they would email to all of their registered visitors
But the problem with most "Hey check out my website" email was myriad.
Nowadays, properly designed web sites, and blogs, include a replica of each page, that you never see when viewing a page in your browser. This replica, called a news feed, can be read only by a newsreader. You subscribe to a news feed by adding its URL to your newsreader.
The web site is updated when convenient to the author, and you read the updates when convenient to you, using your newsreader. Your newsreader tells you which sites have changed, and you only spend time reading the changes. Simple.
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So what to do? Originally, folks who ran websites that really wanted visitors would get an email address from each visitor. Periodically, or when they had written a particularly interesting article, they would email to all of their registered visitors
Check out the website, read this article.
But the problem with most "Hey check out my website" email was myriad.
- Many folks wouldn't give an email address, for fear of spam.
- Some email systems would treat the email, received as spam.
- Folks even getting the email wouldn't read it promptly.
- The email never went out often enough to suit some folks, yet it went out too frequently to suit other folks.
Nowadays, properly designed web sites, and blogs, include a replica of each page, that you never see when viewing a page in your browser. This replica, called a news feed, can be read only by a newsreader. You subscribe to a news feed by adding its URL to your newsreader.
The web site is updated when convenient to the author, and you read the updates when convenient to you, using your newsreader. Your newsreader tells you which sites have changed, and you only spend time reading the changes. Simple.
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