Real Time Information

RSS feeds

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication", but is also known to some as ‘Rich Site summary’. RSS is a format that delivers web content that gets changed on a regular basis.  It is used by computer programs that organize headlines and notices to make all writing easy to read.  It is a way of easily distributing lists of headlines, updating notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. Various online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed; anyone has the option to do this.

If people are interested in a website whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule, they find it very tedious to be constantly checking if that certain website has had any updates, Therefore RSS feeds are extremely useful of notifying people instantly on any changes or updates in the content of a website. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Producing an RSS feed is very simple and thousands of websites now provide this feature, including major news organizations like the New York Times, the BBC, as well as many weblogs.  One of the early solutions to prevent tedious checking of updates was to send out an email to people of any new notifications. Although when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is by far a better way to be notified of newly changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily and efficiently, and the results are presented to you in a well organized fashion. RSS provides the basic information to do its notification. It is presented in the form of a list in order from newest to oldest. When a new notification come through each item usually consists of a title relevant to the information being sent, along with a more complete description and usually a link to a web page with the source of the actual information being described. Sometimes this description is the full information you want to read, and sometimes it is just a summary.

There is a computer programme called "RSS aggregators", (Aggregators are sometimes called "RSS Channels" and "RSS Readers".) They have been developed so people can automatically access the RSS feeds of the websites you care about on your behalf and organize the results for you.
Most modern browsers, including Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Google Chrome automatically check for feeds when you visit a website, they then display the orange RSS icon when they locate one. Many of them allow you to add RSS feeds as a browser favourite or in a bookmark folder, automatically updating them with the latest content.

Web-based news reader’s check feeds and displays any recently updated or new articles that have been added. They allow you to catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, making this option useful if you wish to access the feeds from multiple devices.

Some email software allows you to read RSS feeds. Therefore there is dedicated news reader software available that you can download and install on your computer.

Plane Tracking

By using online services it is possible to collect a variation of information on any plane that you could possibly want to follow. It is possible to see the expected arrival times, they is now new technology has been created where you can track a plane through the whole journey. Flight tracking can be used to calculate the amount of live air traffic from around the world. The primary technology used to receive flight information is called automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B). If the airplanes are flying, satellites pick up the exact whereabouts of them. The website you are browsing over looking at flights will also tell you where the plane departed from and its intended destination. It will show the departure time and the time of intended arrival. There will be a picture of the plane that the flight is taken place on, the company of this plane is also provided, e.g. Easy Jet.

Flightradar24 is an example of a website that follows and tracks planes daily. When you visit the website there is a map of the world you can click on the map to zoom in to any country you desire, then small pictures of an airplanes will appear all over the map to show you where they are flying over at that exact moment. If you click on any of the visible planes it will give you all the information about it that you might need to know. Flight tracking is useful if you have to pick up someone you can check is their flight has been delayed or cancelled. The only problem with this particular website is that it is reasonably slow and is not updated instantly, the page takes about a minute or so to refresh.

There are Apps for Smartphone’s which are now able to be downloaded, so no matter where you are situated you can still check up on flights.

Online Booking

Today it is possible to book a lot of different things through the internet, flights, hotels, and cinema and theatre tickets. The main reason people decide to make bookings over the internet is because of the high convenience, the internet is available 24/7 and anyone can therefore make a booking when ever is required, this is beneficial as theatre tickets for example often sell out fast, so being able to book immediately online saves you a lot of worry. If anything is booked online, you can always check that there is an available space for you first, and if so then you are guaranteed a place once your booking has been placed.  On all websites there are always paragraphs of information provided, so before you decide whether to book or not you can read up on all the details on whatever the chosen booking

Often when booking online there is always some kind of benefit for you included such as saving money, this is very common on theme park websites for example. You have the option to shop around when making online reservations and choose the best price. Many hotel and airline websites exaggerate of having the lowest prices and even offer Internet only offers which provide a high discounted price; this is a strategy that will keep them competitive in the business. If you make bookings over the phone speaking with customer service representatives there will be and extra fee included, so another advantage of booking online is saving money on all those extra hidden fees.

Online booking or reservations can always be cancelled if you change your mind so there is no worry paying for something and no receiving you money back, the cancellation usually has to be done by phone though.

Once a business has established a good website with detailed useful information, an online booking system is the ideal next step. Without the capability of online bookings your website is not taking advantage of your ‘real-time’ connection with consumers all over the internet to maximise benefits from your online exposure and reach full potential.

Booking online is also extremely beneficial for the company as well as the customer.  Your sites deals will capture the customer before they navigate away from your site, which results in potential customer making bookings on to your competitors' sites. There are opportunities to expose your products to customers, these are most appealing to people who tend to book online regularly. Saves the business the time of processing bookings and avoiding double handling of data, everything is secured and open to browse online. Displays your availability on your website, any updates will automatically be put on your records without the need for emails and manually entering in guest details, this is most useful when booking seats, it ensures that a seat have not been double booked, preventing an inconvenience.

Parcel Tracking/ Order Tracking

You can now track your parcels by using our online tracking system if you are expecting a delivery which you have recently made and want to know its whereabouts. Online tracking is the fastest way to find out where you shipment is located. There is no need to call customer services when real time details of your parcel are available. Each singular parcel has its own unique tracking number, this number can then be typed into the suitable carriers search, such as FedEx and all the details of you order placement will be provided.

This service is of a great use because it allows you to make sure you are going to receive the purchase you made, it also gives you a reason to trust that website if you can track your order if you needed to find out where it is. With services such as this online shopping and tracking it makes it irrelevant to bother shopping in the actual department store.

Satellite Navigation - traffic updates, they with guide you to avoid traffic.

Satellite navigation, more commonly known as ‘sat nav’ depends on GPS signals to establish the current position of the receiver. Your receiver (your in-car 'sat nav unit') also contains a set of road maps. Using GPS and the maps together, it can plan a route between your current position and any selected destination. It can also plot your progress along the route, by constantly updating your position through signals from the GPS satellites.

Weather

Another vital use of real time information is the weather. Weather is constantly around us every day of our lives, it is the main factor that effects how we lead our day.  We insist of checking up on the weather frequently hoping for the best possible outcome. It is one very important part of our live which we cannot control, but it can control us, its effects what we wear, what we eat, where we go and how we live. Weather is the day to day conditions in the place we are situated in.

Climate is spoken about the same as a person would describe weather, but climate is something quite different. The climate is the commonly repeated weather conditions at a particular place over a long period of time. Different countries around the world vary with climate drastically. For example deserts have a hot and dry climate on a daily basis while the Antarctic has a very cold and wet climate.

The weather is available to find out at any time of the day, it is not only possible to view the weather in your own area but in other countries as well. There are several websites which hold the recent forecasts such as the BBC News or Environment Agency. Also on many channels on the television the weather is often shown, usually after news update programmes. This is useful as people have to get up early for either school or work in the morning they have the option to check the weather so they can start planning their day starting with what they decide is appropriate to wear.

Personally the weather affects me and my mood throughout the day. Such as if it rains it puts me in a bad mood and makes me want to stay at home all day, I don’t like it when it rains and I have to go out because it means i have to wear either wellies or boots. Whereas it its sunny and warm I want to go out to places such as the beach where I can just wear a dress and sandals.

It is very common today for websites to have live webcams in operation; this allows anyone to be able to see the conditions in certain places all over the world. This comes in great use to people who often travel abroad; it allows them to aware themselves what the weather will be like when visiting a distinctive town, by watching these webcams and establishes the current conditions so you know what to be expecting. This is very useful when you are thinking about booking a ski holiday; most ski resorts will provide a live snow cam.

Updated news feeds

Never before have we as people had such a dire need to truly grasp the meaning of today's world events. News from all across the world is constantly being updated; this is because the public consider this a necessity today as there is so much violence and crime occurring that people need to be warned. People today like to be informed on what’s happening around them in this world today.

  

News Readers

There is a large range of news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Different news readers work on selective operating systems, so you will need to choose one that will work with your computer.

Once you have chosen a news reader, you then have the option of deciding what content you wish it to receive. So if you would like to have the latest BBC News Business stories, you simply visit the Business section and you will notice an orange RSS button on your browser. If you choose to click the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, by dragging the URL off the feed into your personal news reader or by cutting and pasting that same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

This is a recent news story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-19818673#

Rail way time tables

Real time information makes researching train time and finding out about any delays or cancellations that may have occurred. Booking tickets so also made much simpler. Having timetable available helps you to plan ahead. We all live such technological lifestyles today so having train times approachable over the internet saves a lot of time and are convenient for people with busy schedules.  There is a selection of different websites to get instant updates on the times of trains and any cancellations or delays there may be, the National Rail website is an example of one of these.

The National Rail also has an app for iPhones, this is a huge help to people who frequently travel on trains. By having the accessibility of getting train times and disruptions in real time is a huge advantage to help to plan around this and avoid any disruptions. An advantage of this would be that it saves a lot of time and effort for any person and therefore no time is wasted. An additional advantage of this service would be for people who are meeting someone at the station so they can see exact time when the train is due so they know when to arrive to meet at the station.

A disadvantage of this service however, the page may no be updated frequently enough to be precise and people may get the wrong information.