What is RSS?

RSS, or really simple syndication, is a method of publishing information from web sites. By using a special news reader, you can subscribe to news “feeds” of particular interest and be notified when new content becomes available on a web site.

RSS allows you to focus on topics and articles that are most interesting to you. Instead of having to visit a hundred sites a day to read all the headlines and news, you can simply subscribe to your favorite feeds and read them in one place. Most major news organizations like The New York Times, CNN, ABC, MSN, Yahoo, Slashdot and even Google offer RSS feeds of headlines and information. You can find weather and traffic reports, search results, and even blogs are offered as RSS. You can read article introductions or summaries before clicking through to a web page, which allows you to make the most of your browsing time.

RSS readers can also alert you when content has been added to the web sites you have subscribed to, much like how e-mail readers notify you when a new message arrives. RSS feeds also do not clog your email box.

Getting Started

To use RSS, you’ll need an RSS reader, which combines a web browser with a tool that summarizes the content of subscribed news feeds. There are many RSS readers available. Some are installed as applications on your computer, while others can be used through a web browser. Most readers are divided into three categories: readers that work as stand-alone applications, readers that are part of web browsing software, and readers that are available as a service from a web site. Many are free to use. A list of many of the readers is available online.

Once you have downloaded your news reader/aggregator you can put news feeds into your news aggregator. You can do this by right-clicking (or control-clicking on the Mac) on the RSS icon, which is commonly found at the bottom or in the sidebar of a web page (), then copying the shortcut/link location and pasting it into the news aggregator. You can also subscribe to a particular news feed in order to get news updates from a particular site.