One problem I have encountered when reading blogs through my web browser is that it takes a lot of time just to check whether one of your favorite bloggers has posted new content or not. Those among us with tight schedules will also find that sometimes, there’s just not enough time to check all their favorite sites for updates. It is doubly frustrating when after you reach your favorite blog, you find that the latest entry is the one you read 2 weeks ago. It makes you wish that you could opt to be informed when new content is introduced to the site so you can visit it. The fact is, this is actually possible using web syndication (the most common type of syndication is a web feed).Let me show you how I use initially a browser (I use Mozilla Firefox) and a feed reader (Mozilla Thunderbird) to keep track of my favorite sites’ updates with web feeds.

First off, you will need a web browser. If you are reading this post, chances are you already have one (these days, who doesn’t?). Internet Explorer will work just fine but personally, if I could use just one browser, I’d go with Mozilla Firefox. You can download Mozilla Firefox here.

Next, you will need a Feed Reader. My favorite is Mozilla Thunderbird, which is an e-mail client with feed reader capabilities. Go download Mozilla Thunderbird now!

Next you will need to start and setup Mozilla Thunderbird to be a feed reader. Since Thunderbird was originally an email client, you might have to setup your email account first. There’s a tutorial on that here.

After you get Thunderbird set-up, you need to setup an account to read feeds from your favorite sites.

Click on File->New->Account.

Select RSS News and Blogs and click Next.

Choose your account name (The default will usually be just fine) and click Next.

Click Finish to close the wizard.

Now, it’s time to start subscribing to your favorite blogs! For this example, let’s use the current page. Right-click on the blue RSS icon on the navigation bar to your right and select Copy Link URL. A typical RSS icon will look like this:

Note that RSS feeds may be referred to by links as well as icons. Right clicking The Subscribe To RSS Feed link on some pages will do just as well as getting the link URL from a picture or icon. We should also be aware that not all websites provide RSS feeds for their subscribers. Moreover, Thunderbird can also use feeds from other formats which adhere to RSS (i.e. FeedBurner, RSS 2.0, RDF).

Next, In Thunderbird, right-click your News & Blogs account and create a new folder to store your link. This is just an optional step to make it easier to organize your subscriptions. You may actually skip this step and store all your subscriptions in the News & Blogs account’s top directory.

Right-click the News & Blogs account and select Subscribe. You will see a form similar to this:

Paste the URL you copied from the link provided on the webpage (remember right-clicking the RSS icon?).

Thunderbird will automatically verify the feed and display it if it is valid.

You may repeat the process in adding new feeds from other blogs or sites.

Here I have added another feed for another blog and some of the newer entries from the blog have been downloaded:

That’s it! Thunderbird now automates checking for updates so you don’t need to reread same content twice!