RSS help

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds are an easy way for you to keep up with regular news headlines on your desktop without browsing for them on websites. More and more sites now offer feeds, these can normally be identified by a small orange button or a small icon saying RSS or XML. If you click on one of these icons you will usually get a page full of code in your browser. To read these feeds properly you will need an RSS reader.

What is an RSS Reader?

There are two types of RSS reader or newsreader. The standalone program, which will automatically update headlines regularly with newsfeeds from your subscribed websites and blogs or a plug-in that works with an existing application such as Microsoft Outlook or Internet Explorer.

Where can I get an RSS Reader?

There are several news feed programs available for most platforms and many of them are free. There are also some newer web browsers that offer similar features already built in. These will detect whether the website you are viewing has news feeds available and let you add these as a link in your bookmarks. Firefox for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and also Apple Safari for Mac OSX will let you do this. There are also websites that let you customise news feeds too.