About RSS Feeds

What are RSS Feeds?

RSS feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. There is some debate as to what RSS stands for, but most people agree on 'Really Simple Syndication'. Basically the feeds are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.

How do I start using RSS Feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.

Browser-based readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it to receive. If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their websites.

How do I get an RSS Feed reader?

There are many companies offering free RSS readers - a selection include:

Google, Newz Crawler, FeedDemon, Awasu, Newsfire, NetNewsWire, Bloglines, FeedZilla, NewsGator, Microsoft Live, My Yahoo!, Mozilla Firefox