Feeds? I don't get it...

[brandofamily]

I still do not get what the feeds at the bottom of the SM pages do for the user and/or site owner. Is there a simple way to explain it? Does any one use them for photographer sites? Thanks.

[Andy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

http://www.sixapart.com/about/feeds

Hi Anthony, have a read and then fire back questions. I put sites into my feed reader, http://google.com/reader and I know whenever someone updates their site!

[brandofamily]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

http://www.sixapart.com/about/feeds

Hi Anthony, have a read and then fire back questions. I put sites into my feed reader, http://google.com/reader and I know whenever someone updates their site!
Thanks.. I get the point now, but I'm still not convinced they are useful for my site.
Is there any way to see if I have subscribers?

[Andy]

Thanks.. I get the point now, but I'm still not convinced they are useful for my site.
Is there any way to see if I have subscribers?
Feedburner?

And, I guess my question for you, as a pro, is, how can they hurt you? :ear

[PBolchover]

Feeds take quite a bit of getting used to. I used to regularly check 10 or so websites, looking for updates. Now, I just use Google Reader, which informs me when any of these websites have new posts.


Here are some uses for smugmug RSS feeds:

I use subscribe to the feeds of the smugmug sites of a couple of my friends, so that I am automatically informed when they create a new gallery.

I also import my own feeds into Facebook notes, so that a note is created in Facebook every time that I add a new gallery to my own site.