RSS Want to cut to the chase with fresh content on your favourite websites, without hunting through page after page?
Trawling around websites scanning for new content can be time consuming – but there is a short cut - web feeds, or RSS.
RSS? The feeds enable information to be selected for you, rather than your having to search it out. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.
What do I need? To use RSS you will need a reader, or aggregator. The latest version of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox are both equipped with RSS readers. Other news readers can be downloaded for free – see www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators for a full list. Some are programmes which need to be installed and some are online.
How does RSS work? Firstly, a website needs to offer an RSS feed. It then further selects what content to offer. According to your reader, you then go to the site you want and add its feeds, or search for feeds on topics of interest. With some RSS readers you will need to copy and paste the site URL.
How do I add RSS feeds in Internet Explorer?
In version 7.0:
1. Go to the site you want to take feeds from
2. Click the ‘RSS’ link /logo
3. You should then see a ‘Subscribe to this feed’ link – click this. A dialogue box will pop up – click ‘Subscribe’.
4. The site will now be listed on ‘Feeds’, alongside Favourites, when you click the yellow five-pointed star icon (signifying Favourites). When viewing, select the desired feed and click.
5. A list of hyperlinked headlines will appear. Results can be further sorted by date, title and category.
The many different news readers available can be variously configured to provide e-mail notifications of fresh feeds. Others provide a generic search capability. In RSS Reader (www.rssreader.com) for example, if you want to keep a abreast of all the breaking cricket news, search on ‘sport’ and then ‘cricket’. My search produced 45 results – you can choose to take all of them or select only the ones you want.
RSS readers will bring you more, and more specialised, information via the web and can alert you to interesting sources you never knew existed.
There is a danger of information overload if you go for too many feeds – but even then, you can simply delete unwanted ones.