About RSS Feeds
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is used to describe the technology used in creating feeds. A feed, also known as RSS feed, XML feed, syndicated content, or web feed, is frequently updated content published by a website.
What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed?
There are two options: you need a browser or a separate software.
1. Most recent browsers allow you to subscribe to an RSS feed easily.
2. Separate Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allows you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.
A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.
Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks.
You can download Feed Readers from:
- Awasu (Windows; free)
- AmphetaDesk (Linux, Mac, Windows; free)
- Bloglines (web-based, free)
- Bottomfeeder (Linux, Mac, Unix, Windows; free)
- NetNewsWire (Mac; free)
- NewzCrawler (Windows)
- Radio UserLand (Mac, Windows)
- Raggle (Linux, Unix; free, via terminal)
- Snownews (Linux, Unix; free, via terminal)
- Syndirella (Windows; free)
(Esko is not responsible for outdated links.)
To be able to read the feed in your RSS reader, you must copy the feed's location (URL) and just paste it in the Feed Reader software.
Internet Explorer (version 7 and higher)
When you first view a website, Internet Explorer will search for feeds. If feeds are available, the Feeds icon (at the right side of your browser) will change color and a sound will play.
A feed can have the same content as a webpage, but it's often formatted differently. When you subscribe, Internet Explorer automatically checks the website and downloads new content so you can see what is new since you last visited the feed.
You can receive content automatically by subscribing to a web feed. When you subscribe to a web feed, you set the interval at which Internet Explorer will check the website for updates. Once you've set an interval, Internet Explorer will automatically download the most up-to-date web feed list. Click Related Topics to learn how to subscribe to a web feed.
You view feeds on the Feeds tab in the Favorites Center. To view your feeds, click the Favorites Center icon, and then click Feeds.
Mozilla Firefox (version 2 and higher)
Click on the subscribe icon in the Adress Bar next to the location (url).
Click the Subscribe now button on the next page.
Go to the RSS feed in your bookmarks to see all the latest headlines for that feed.
How to change the default RSS reader in Firefox 2.0 ?
Go to Tools -> Options and select Choose Feed Reader from the General tab. Just select the new RSS reader from the list and click OK.
