RSS Feed

What's an RSS Feed?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A syndication is a system for distributing information to a large number of people easily such as a newspaper syndication. An RSS Feed is an easy way for you to keep up with new items being posted on web sites that have RSS Feeds available, without having to visit the site first.

Once a day, or whenever you tell it to, your RSS reader will check the websites you have subscribed to for updates. If you check your RSS favorites you will be able to see if there have been any updates since the last time you looked.

You can subscribe to a Feed only if you have a program that can read an RSS file. These are called feed readers or aggregators. To subscribe to a feed, just click on the orange RSS icon. If you have an RSS reader, then you will see a page where you can either Subscribe to the Feed or copy the feed address into your stand alone reader. If you don't have a compatible RSS reader, then you will see a page full of gobbledegook. In that case, you need to get a reader.

Internet Explorer 7, Outlook 2007, newer versions of FireFox and most other newer web browsers have built-in Feed readers. As of this posting, readers for Google Chrome must be installed as a plug-in. Outlook Express does not have a Feed reader, but there are a number of Feed readers and feed reading plug-ins available on the Internet. Search for Feed Reader and you should find several, or try this free stand alone reader from FeedReader.com

To see your subscribed feeds in Internet Explorer 7, just click the gold star in the upper left and your favorites will open. Look at the top bar above your favorites. Notice the item that says Feeds. Click that and you will see any feeds you are subscribed to. If there are any new updates you haven't seen yet, the feed names will be shown in bold text. Hover your mouse over a subscription and you should see a popup indicating the number of new items available. Click on a link and you will be sent to that feed page. Internet Explorer comes with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Home Feeds already subscribed. You can delete any Feed, or group of Feeds you don't want by right clicking on the feed and choosing delete.

In Outlook 2007, the Feeds folder can be found as a listed item under your Personal Folders group. Outlook 2007 and Internet Explorer share Feed links so any you add to Explorer will show up in Outlook and vice versa. Outlook checks for new feeds each time it retrieves e-mail.

In most other browsers you will see an RSS feed icon on the address bar near the top. Just click on that icon and you will see the feed and instructions as to how to subscribe. Exact procedures for subscribing or viewing feeds is constantly changing for different browsers so you may need to look around a bit.

Info courtesy of CowboyFrank.net