RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Web sites and blogs provide RSS feeds so that people can receive notifications and descriptions of the latest news or content changes, without having to regularly visit the site to check for updates.

Read more about RSS feeds and how to use them below.

 

More about RSS

RSS feeds can usually be identified by the icon RSS icon or sometimes RSS icon or XML icon.

You'll need to use a free program - known as an RSS reader or aggregator - to subscribe to the feeds. The RSS reader will automatically alert you to new content and provide you with headlines and a short summary, with links back to the original web site. And you can monitor as many feeds as you want!

Modern Web browsers usually include RSS feed support:

  • Internet Explorer 7 and 8 have a built-in RSS reader - just click on the feed.
  • Firefox offers a similar feature called Live Bookmarks.
  • Safari also manages feeds as bookmarks.
  • Opera 9 includes a menu item for managing Feeds.

Some examples of web-based aggregators (useful for accessing your feeds wherever you have Internet access):

or clients that you would need to install:

 

Page last updated on: 01/10/2009