 News feeds, often known as RSS or Really Simple Syndication, are used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web, as it allows
you to easily retrieve the latest content from the
sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each
site individually. RSS feeds are not just for news, they can be used to syndicate anything which can be broken down into discrete items, such as video clips , calendar entries, etc. In essence, you should be using RSS feeds or newsletters in order to keep your visitors engaged with your website.
In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader.
This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any
new articles that have been added. There are many different versions,
some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are
downloadable applications. Browser-based news readers let you catch up
with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas
downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in
the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or
keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail. Once you have chosen a
news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it
to receive.
If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various
ways, including by dragging the URL of the 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 feeds use a similar orange button, but
some may just have a normal web link. Some browsers, including Firefox,
Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit
a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make
subscribing to feeds much easier. For more details on these, please
check their websites.
If you are interested, please take a look at our RSS Feeds Explored article.
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