Discussions and speculation around Google closing its RSS feed continue unabated. Some are looking for a worthy alternative, others are waiting for new services to appear amid the hype.

Previously, I published an article that the . After reading this article you will learn how to read RSS feed using Gmail.

To solve a problem, you can use unusual ideas. If you like fresh and non-standard solutions, then you should try setting up your email service to receive and read news from an RSS feed. This approach has already been used previously in some email programs, but now any of the email services can be configured to read the feed: Gmail, mail.ru, yandex.ru and others. Of course, minor difficulties may arise during setup, but in general the idea of ​​setup and use is the same.

Step 1. Send feed content to your inbox

To configure mail to interact with RSS feeds, you need to enter feeds using external services. You can use Pipes, Blogtrottr, IFTTT or other services for this. Let's take Blogtrottr as an example - this service has many different functions, in addition to the most useful for our business - sending feed content to the mailbox.

Register and add an OPML file with all the addresses of your subscriptions. Then you can adjust the refresh rate, enable filters, change the name. By the way, the update frequency is important, since the service by default updates RSS feeds depending on technical capabilities, that is, either in real time or once an hour. As a rule, this is enough. Well, if there is no need for such a frequency of updates, then you can set a different interval: two, four, six twelve hours or once a day.

Step 2. Install the filter.

Installing a filter is mandatory in this case, since after registering and adding feeds, your mailbox will receive many messages, many of which are unnecessary. Therefore, we set up filters for your email service. For example, in Gmail filters work very well and when you customize them to your requirements, you will get a very convenient reader, comparable in comfort to Google reader. The first thing that comes to mind: creating folders with names on topics of interest or news sources. There are many ideas for filtering and organizing into folders.

By the way, Gmail is a very advanced service, which is why there are so many options for using this service. It’s just a pity that Gmail can’t work with SMS messages. If you need SMS sending, then you can order this service on the above website.

After setting up the internal filters of the mail service, you will see all the news in one menu, which can be collapsed so that it does not take up much space on the screen. For example, if you have Gmail, you can configure the client in such a way that received news is not displayed in the “Inbox” folder, but is immediately sent to the appropriate folders, without being mixed with letters and messages.

It makes no sense to consider the process of setting up filters more precisely - everyone has their own email client and their own ideas for distributing information.

Step 3. Sort the information received.

So, after setting up and filtering, we can read the usual RSS feed information. Now, when viewing information, you can distribute it depending on its importance: send some to “Marked” or “Important”, others to the trash. If you need to add notes or your thoughts about this or that information, you just need to click “Reply” and enter the text. Now, the information will always be associated with the comment and will be in the “Drafts” folder (for Gmail and similar services).

If you configure the sorting correctly, it will save you a lot of time. And time is money. By the way, you can earn good money in.

By the way, to thoroughly understand sorting emails in Gmail, I recommend watching this video.

Step 4. Use additional features.

Mailers like Gmail or Yandex have excellent additional features associated with other services of these companies. If you need to share the news with your friends, Gtalk will help, if you received news of an interesting event and want to create a reminder, add it to the Google calendar, if you need to process the information, use the Google task manager.

To use email program services more widely, you need to spend a little time studying all the capabilities of related services. Let's summarize the results of this non-standard use of Gmail: this idea has enough positive aspects and few negative ones. Among the advantages of use: comfortable use thanks to filtering and customized settings, no need to switch from one site or service to another, many opportunities thanks to related services, and for Google and other large services, this also means interaction with social networks or popular applications . In addition, it is possible to work with mobile devices and select the page design. Well, of course there is consistency - it’s absolutely incredible that Google would get rid of Gmail.

There are not many disadvantages at all: firstly, if setup is unsuccessful, letters and news will be mixed, which will lead to increased clutter in the mailbox, and secondly, for some users this use of the service is simply unusual. Otherwise, this is a good solution to the issue of replacing Google reader, without any special problems or technical difficulties.

Good afternoon, dear blog readers!

A few days ago I received a message in my email asking me to answer the question: “How to subscribe to RSS?” At first I just wanted to answer the letter, explaining what, how and where. But soon after a short correspondence with this person, I realized that it was better to write an article in which I would show step by step the entire process of subscribing to RSS or E-mail.

This topic has already been raised thousands of times on the Internet. On the topic: “How to subscribe to RSS, E-mail, using readers, programs, etc.?” Hundreds of articles have been written, but all of them are incomplete or incomprehensible.

Based on all of the above, I want to make my own little manual :-)

Make yourself comfortable. Make yourself tea or coffee with a bun. Well, get ready, within a few minutes you will learn what RSS is and learn how to use this technology.

1) What is RSS?
2) How to subscribe to RSS?
3) How to receive RSS updates by E-mail?

And:
4) Subscribe to RSS using Readers (Google, Yandex.Lenta)
5) Subscribe to RSS using special programs
6) Pros and cons of a certain subscription form

What is RSS?

RSS is a “special technology” with the help of which information is transmitted on the NETWORK. In other words, this is one of the most convenient ways to get the latest updates on your favorite website or blog.

RSS helps you quickly and efficiently receive updates, including mine. In general, almost all sites and blogs have their own RSS feeds.

I am sure that most of the readers of this post follow several sites (blogs) for updates. Of course, if it’s just a few pieces, then there’s nothing to say. Going through 2-3 blogs will not be difficult for anyone.

But what if there are 20-30 blogs?

This is where it gets a little problematic. Although no, there are no problems. It will just take a lot of time. And this is not good. We need to reduce the time spent on the Internet :-)

By the way, for those who do not have “unlimited” internet, RSS is more useful than ever, since thanks to this technology there is no need to visit blogs (sites) to check their updates. So using RSS is very convenient!

Pros of RSS subscription

• Get instant updates from your favorite blogs and sites
• No need to visit all your favorite sites and blogs to check for updates
• Time reduction

There is nothing to talk about downsides, since there are none (although for some there may be).

What is better: RSS or E-mail subscription?

For me, there are no significant differences, except that updates arrive by e-mail with a delay. For some this is important, but for me not so much.

I use both email and RSS subscriptions. To read RSS, I choose Yandex.Subscriptions, since you can combine the use of mail with viewing updates on various sites and blogs.

So, you already understand that an RSS subscription is faster than an E-mail subscription. Also, an RSS subscription has a slightly different form of reading compared to E-mail. You will be convinced of this by reading the article to the end.

How to receive RSS updates by email?

Let's start with the simplest subscription form (E-mail). You have already encountered it on other sites and blogs. Maybe they just didn’t notice, or maybe they didn’t know. Any subscription to an email account is made using the Feedburner service, which belongs to Gosha (Google).

Almost all bloggers use this service, although lately I have noticed some minor problems with the service.

P.S. They say that Gosha has given up on Feedburner and that he will soon disappear, but until this happens, we are learning to subscribe to E-mail.

What does the email subscription form look like?

Let's look at the entire email subscription process using my subscription form as an example.

1) First, enter your E-mail in the special field in the subscription form:

2) Next, click on the “OK” button or press the “Enter” key

3) After which a new window opens, where in a special field you need to enter characters confirming that you are not a robot (this is necessary to combat spam)

5) If everything is done correctly, the following window should appear:

6) Now you need to confirm your email. This is necessary in order to prove that this e-mail belongs to you.

To confirm your email, check your email and look for the letter:

OK it's all over Now! Electronic subscription confirmed. This means that now you will always be up to date with the latest events!

Subscribe to RSS using Google Reader and Yandex.Subscriptions

By the way, with the help of Readers it is easier to subscribe to RSS. You will see this further.

Let's start with Google Reader

1) Go to the main page of the reader.

• If you have an account on any of the Google services, then you do not need to create a new one.

• If you don't have an account, register. Registration will take about 5-10 minutes.

There are currently no subscriptions in Reader. Next, I'll show you how to subscribe to RSS using my blog as an example.

4) Move the cursor over the “Subscriptions” in the left sidebar.

5) Click on the button that appears on the right and select an action. In our case, “Add a new subscription...”

6) If everything is done correctly, a pop-up window should appear in which you need to enter the address of the site or blog:

9) Click on any “Subscribe” button. All these feeds are from one RSS channel.

10) Well, that's all! You are subscribed to my RSS channel. Now you will always receive prompt updates from my blog!

Subscribe to RSS using Yandex.Subscriptions

I believe that using Yandex.Subscriptions is easier and more convenient compared to Google Reader, since Y.P. merged with Yandex mail. Those. By checking your email you can check for updates on your favorite sites and blogs.

So, let's look at the process of subscribing to RSS using my blog as an example.

1) Open Yandex.Mail.

P.S. if you don't yet have an account on Yandex, .

4) All that remains is to enter the address of the website or blog and click on “Subscribe”

OK it's all over Now! Subscription completed! I don't think you have any problems.

I guess I’ll end this post here. Yes, I almost forgot, you can subscribe to RSS using special Reader programs:

• FeedDemon
• RSS Reader
• Abilon
• Newz Crawler

I won’t write about how to use them, since they are simple and intuitive. I recommend using FeedDemon, as it has more features compared to other programs.

As planned, I’m slowly starting to register with different ones in search of additional orders for web development. The first on the list of relevant projects for review was Weblancer.net (detailed). A little later I will publish a detailed review, and today I will introduce you to the solution to one problem that will be useful when working with it. We will talk about receiving a feed of vacancies (tasks) from RSS to your email. Moreover, we will filter applications by the keyword we need.

In principle, updates to RSS feeds can be tracked in different ways: someone adds the feed to bookmarks, someone uses a special reader program, plus there are various services on the Internet for receiving RSS by Email:

• Feedmyinbox.com
• blogtrottr.com
• Zapier.com
• Ifttt.com

There are probably other projects, but these should suffice. The first two sites have the classic functionality of sending RSS to email, where you simply specify the RSS feed address and your email. The last couple works on a slightly different principle, which is exactly what we need.

I previously blogged, where I gave several examples of use, including sending SMS when ordering goods in a store. The same project will help you receive RSS by email with the addition of a special filter (key phrase).

Algorithm for setting up RSS to email via IFTTT

First of all, register on the IFTTT website. Then in the top menu, select the “My Applets” item, and then click on the “New Applet” link to create a new applet (previously this was called recipes).

The very principle of the service is that you, firstly, define a certain condition under which your applet will be triggered, and secondly, indicate what action should ultimately occur.

The whole process takes 6 steps:

1. Selecting a service for a trigger. Click on the “this” button (see picture above), a list of different options will open in a new tab, we need RSS.

2. Definition of a trigger (triggering conditions). There are 2 options for RSS feed:

Select the second item “New feed item matches”, that is, the appearance of a new element in the RSS feed that would match the keyword or phrase you specified. Click on this trigger, and the service will ask you to fill in the appropriate settings:

The Weblancer.net feed of new orders/vacancies is located at the following address (if the value does not work, there may be a new RSS on the site):

https://www.weblancer.net/rss/jobs.rss

I personally use “wordpress” as a keyword because... I need all orders associated with this CMS system. Next, click “Create trigger”.

3. Let's move on to selecting an action - the “that” button. We use Email as a service to implement the task.

4. For mail, there is only one option - sending a message. The service generates a letter in HTML format and also supports inserting links and pictures.

5. In the penultimate step, you will need to fill out the parameters of the email message - select the subject of the letter (Subject) and the content (Body).

You can write plain text as values ​​or specify special parameters from the “Ingredient” block. With their help, you can send various information from RSS to email: the title of the post from the feed, its text, author, link, etc. When finished, click on “Creator action”.

6. In the last step, you will need to check all the parameters of the applet and finish working on it - the “Finish” button.

After creation, all applets go to the “My Applets” section. There you can temporarily disable them or delete them. As for our task of receiving RSS by email from Weblancer, in the end I receive the following letters:

Advantages of the method:

• There is no point in monitoring the list of works on Weblancer.
• I receive only the information I need, while the exchange's RSS includes tasks from all categories.
• If you are engaged in different types of activities and not just WordPress development, you can create several applets.
• It's relatively fast (especially when you've set up notifications for new emails in Gmail).

By the way, when receiving RSS by email, there is still a certain delay (less than an hour), as I understand it, due to the technology itself or the frequency of reading the feed by the IFTTT service. Therefore, if you want to be the very first performer, you need to either monitor the site constantly, or look for alternative solutions - perhaps the data will arrive faster through an RSS reader. But for me personally, speed is not critical; it’s convenient to receive vacancies in Gmail along with other important messages.

If you know any other interesting options for sending RSS to email, tell us about them in the comments.

The RSS format is a fairly convenient way to subscribe to updates from your favorite blogs. Previously, I used Google Reader to read RSS feeds, but, alas, the company closed this convenient service. Although, of course, now there are many other alternative projects, including Yandex.Lenta. One of the options for subscribing to an RSS feed has always been Email. Perhaps for most users it is even more convenient, understandable and accessible (due to regular use of mail). Unfortunately, not all blog authors and website owners provide the ability to send RSS to Email.

Recently I looked at the situation from a webmaster's point of view and described how to set up a newsletter via Feedburner. Today we will talk about users - How to subscribe to RSS via Email if the site does not have such an option? Previously, I remember, the RSS2Email project was quite active in RuNet, but now it has completely died down. The previously popular FeedMyInbox also became somehow buggy + they sent a notification in the mail about the termination of its work. Fortunately, there is a way out!

The main and only task of the Blogtrottr service is to send news from RSS feeds to your Email. At the same time, the main features of Blogtrottr:

• Used PubSubHubbub to receive notifications as quickly as possible.
• Setting the time for sending notifications - immediately, within a few hours, or generating a digest for the day.
• Setting up the subject of emails. Receiving only the necessary information - headings, texts.
• Friendly to Email clients - both HTML and Plain Text versions are sent.
• Import-export of a list of subscriptions via OPML file.
• Support for preview images and files.
• Customizable email templates or header-only notifications.

In order to organize a subscription through the Blogtrottr service, on the main page, enter the RSS feed address, your Email, and also select how often you want to receive letters. Next, click on the “Feed Me” button.

This is a “script” for sending RSS notifications to email. You need to click on the “Start Using This” link, after which you will be taken to the first setup step.

Select “New item in feed” in the left field, and “Send Outbound Email” in the right field. You, in essence, specify the nature of the required action; all other settings - email address and RSS feeds - are set further. There, I remember, there will be an opportunity to select which data from RSS to send, etc. That is, the setup is quite flexible.

As a result, I will say that both services work well. Once I set up Blogtrottr and Zapier, I receive notifications when the required RSS feed is updated. If we compare the two projects, Zapier sends emails faster (almost instantly), but Blogtrottr is easier to set up. In addition, you need to keep in mind that Zapier has a limit on the number of actions.

I have already written about RSS feeds many times. About what a convenient mechanism it is to keep track of updates in your favorite places on the Internet. Today I’ll tell you how to receive the contents of certain RSS feeds by email.

Let's take as an example Vanych, who, although he started writing his wonderful messages on LiRu, is better known as a LJ user pesen-net(and stopped publishing messages on LiRu). First, we need the RSS feed address. Where can I get it? There are an unimaginable number of ways to do this. For example, for our example, you can take it here (from the picture that you saw framed in the screenshot below):

If you hover your mouse over this inscription or picture, you may be shown this address:

But how to copy it? But at least like this: " ". Especially for those who will not read the message to which I provided a link. First, you should hover your mouse over the “RSS” label. Secondly, click on right mouse button. Thirdly, select something like “Copy link address”:

If you can’t do it, then you’ll still have to go to the message to which you gave a link.

So how? Copied? No? Well, okay, here's the address you need (for example): http://pesen-net.livejournal.com/data/rss .

Now the question should begin to torment you: “Well, I already have an RSS feed address, but what should I do with it?” I want to crush Chernyshevsky in you in the bud, and immediately distract you from this issue. I will say more, you need to insert it into the form on the site blogtrottr.com :

As you may have noticed, in addition to the RSS feed address, you also need to indicate your email address. And choose how often to send letters to this address:

For those who do not understand: send updates literally in “real time”, send one letter at 2 o’clock with all updates, at 4 o’clock, at 6 o’clock, at 8 o’clock, at 12 o’clock and once a day. Choose the option that suits you best. Have you chosen? Well, that's it, the subscription is almost finished.

All you have to do is click on this button:

Now that’s all for sure. The site will check your RSS feed for validity and inform you that a confirmation letter has been sent to you:

Now you need to go to the post office whose address you indicated and wait for a letter like this:

It will contain a lot of text, but the most important thing is the link (there are few links in the letter, only one):

That's all.

Next time I’ll tell you how to subscribe to receive blog updates on LiRu, available for anonymous viewing, via email.