What’s in a feed? More importantly, what IS a feed? If you tool around on the internet enough you’ve at least seen the term in a technical fashion… NOT in relation to livestock!

A typical feed icon (called a chicklet)

When I install blogging software on our clients’ domains, I always include about an hour’s worth of time on the phone to give a tutorial to explain how the blog works, how to take advantage of certain features, etc. Nine times out of ten I am asked what a feed is, and why it is necessary and beneficial to the client.

In very simple terms, a feed is kind of like a content subscription service — a way to distribute your content quickly and easily around the interwebs.  Feedburner (owned by Google) has a great page that sums up the meaning and qualities of a feed. Their definition (which I think is easy to understand) of a feed is as follows:

Feeds are a way for websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for site content to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other bite-sized technologies that make it possible to display blogs, podcasts, and major news/sports/weather/whatever headlines just about anywhere.

So why is a feed a good thing? Hmmm… again, Feedburner asks and answers this very question well:

Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite websites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you’re ready.

I recommend reading this helpful page through if feeds are something about which you’ve felt you needed to learn.

I avoided reading blogs for a long time, thus I avoided looking into feed readers (see “How do I read feeds?” on that same help page). I felt that my already strapped-for-time day couldn’t possibly handle yet another internet time-sucking endeavor. But alas, I caved (and am glad for it) and started reading a variety of blogs, for work… for news… for parenting… for laughs. I found I was spending an awful lot of time browsing from blog to blog. Now, I use Google reader, and can access my blog subscriptions from any computer. I don’t check it every day, but when I do, I know that I can catch up on my favorite online reading.

Did you happen to notice the aggregate feed in our sidebar? It is titled “Connect with Our Blogging Clients” and is a great way to check out the latest posts by some Wax clients.

There were a couple of reasons why I created this feed in the first place. One was that it is pretty cool and for the techno-geek in me, it was a fun challenge to create (I used Yahoo Pipes). Another big reason is that I wanted the folks who read OUR blog to click through to our clients’ — our blog then becomes a destination. Even if you know what a feed reader is, you may not necessarily be interested in adding all of our blogging clients to it. Having the aggregate feed available in our sidebar gives you the chance to scan the titles/authors and see if any sound appealing enough to click over and read without committing to adding another blog to your feed reader… yet. I would not have been able to create this aggregate feed if each individual blog didn’t already have its own feed. It all — pardon the pun — feeds into one another!

There are myriad other topics centered around feeds I could discuss (RSS vs Atom, etc.), but I don’t want to overload those of you for whom feeds are new. If you are one of those who already use a reader, I’m curious — which one do you use, and why?