RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, but RSS feeds are often referred to as “news feeds” instead – they’re the same thing. This article will help you come to grips with what news feeds are all about.
What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way of being notified of new web site content as soon as it’s available. The beautiful thing about RSS is that it allows you to pull updated content from a number of different sources, without having to visit each web site individually. It’s a really efficient way to stay up to date with a large number of sites.
How do I use it?
To subscribe to a feed, you need a feed reader. This could be a dedicated desktop program, a web-based application, or an add-on to another program such as your email client or web browser.
There is an overwhelming number of feed readers available. To keep it simple, at least in the beginning, I’II recommend one of two: Microsoft Outlook or Google Reader.
Microsoft Outlook
If you use Microsoft Outlook 2007 or newer, there’s a handy feed reader built right in. If you’re the kind of person who spends a lot of your day in Outlook, it can be a very quick and easy way to read your feeds.
For instructions on setting up RSS feeds in Outlook, go to this location.
Google Reader
Google Reader is a web-based application for reading RSS feeds. It has some great heavy-duty features, such as a facility for sharing feed content with your contacts.
If you need to access your feeds from a number of different computers, Google Reader is the ideal solution. It’s also my personal RSS reader of choice.
To start using Google Reader you need a Google account. Further information can be found here.
About the universal feed icon
There is a standard icon that you can now see on many web sites that provide a news feed. It is used to identify feeds themselves, and to identify how to subscribe to them.
You’ve probably seen it before. It looks like this:
The icon became an industry standard for identifying RSS back in 2005, when Microsoft and Opera Software both announced they were adopting it. It first appeared in Mozilla FireFox web browsers.
If you’re interested in reading more about how the icon came to be used, visit the feed icon Wikipedia page.
Autodiscovery makes finding feeds simple
If the site is set up properly, your browser will tell you when there’s a RSS feed available on a site by showing an icon (usually the recognisable orange feed icon). The sceenshots below show where in some popular current browsers:
All you have to do is click on the icon, and the feed will be added to your RSS reader.
No autodiscovery? Add feeds manually
If you can’t see the feed icon in your browser’s toolbar, then there might be an icon or link on the web page itself. Often all you need to do is click on the icon and you’ll find out how to subscribe to the feed.
In another article, we’ll look at whether you should consider providing an RSS feed for your site, and how you go about doing it.
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