RSS
What is RSS?
In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag. Many people choose to have the latest news delivered to them.
Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), news items as they are published can be 'pushed' to you. You can read the latest headlines and articles as soon as they are published, without having to remember to visit the site.
Not all websites provide RSS feeds, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and most major news organisations do.
How do I start using RSS feeds?
In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. If you do not have your news reader in place, you cannot receive your RSS feed. Once you have selected a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want to receive in your news reader, by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds that interest you.
If you click on the rss button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer RSS feeds use a similar, recognisable, orange RSS button, but some may just have a normal web link to the feed.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for RSS feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to RSS feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their websites.
How do I get a news reader?
There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to choose one that will work with your computer.
News Readers - A Selection