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RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for distributing news announcements, newsletters, podcasts, and other content over the internet. RSS feeds are widely used by news and commerce sites to alert visitors when something on a site has changed, such as articles or prices. A typical RSS feed includes a linked headline and short descriptive blurb, such as "Late breaking sale, limited time only."

You'll need an RSS reader (RSS aggregator) before you can view RSS feeds in human readable format, and you'll need to subscribe to feeds, in the same way you need to subscribe to newsletters, before you can receive them. Once you've subscribed to an RSS feed, you no longer have to search for updated information; the information will come to you automatically.

Why should I subscribe?

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving summaries of the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. Because this is a subscription service (usually free), you avoid spam normally associated with public e-mail addresses. An RSS feed ensures the delivery of the content you want to receive by avoiding spam filters, firewalls, blacklisted IP addresses, etc.

For anyone interested in up-to-the-minute information from websites that publish RSS feeds, an aggregator is a necessity. RSS aggregators are set up to periodically check for new items in the feeds you are subscibed to, commonly once every hour. In other words, the news comes to you, rather than you having to go to the news. This saves a tremendous amount of time. Or conversely, you can read many more feeds in the same ammount of time. Many people read several hundred feeds. That just wouldn’t be feasible without an RSS aggregator. Additionally, you avoid all the non-new information on a web page, including the ads, menus, etc.

What Do I Need?

Just like when you want to watch a video clip or listen to music on the web, you need a "player" of some kind to subscribe to feeds. Good news: Most of these tools are free, and there are many to choose from, so you can find the one that best suits you.

The "player" for an RSS feed is called a feed reader (RSS aggregator). This tool lets you subscribe to any feeds you want, checks automatically to see when they're updated, and then displays the updates for you as they arrive. Feed readers can run on your computer or you can sign up to use a feed-reader that runs on the web. If you use one of the web-based readers, you can access your feeds from anywhere you go, just by signing into the website that manages your feeds. If you use a feed reading program that installs on your computer, your feeds can be stored for you even if you're not connected to the Internet.

What Feed Reader (Aggregator) Should I Use?

RSS aggregators come in a wide variety of sources. It is your choice as to which one you decide to use based on whether you travel frequently, use multiple computers, have numerous devices that can receive the same subsciptions, etc. We have provided a number of options below to choose from; which is probably the hardest decision you need to make to get started.

On the web: If you don't want to have to install a program, many people choose My Yahoo!, Google Personalized Homepage, My MSN, or My AOL to read feeds right within the home page that their browser starts in. Other providers of web-based feed readers include Rojo. Bloglines, Attensa Online, or NewsGator Online. All of the web-based services are free.

On your computer (online): If you want a feed reading program that runs on your own computer, there are a few options. Anyone using the Mozilla Firefox web browser has support for feeds built-in, and Microsoft Windows users have support for feeds in Internet Explorer 7. Apple Macintosh users can also use the built-in support for feeds in the Safari web browser. While not for the beginners, Lifera is so far the best RSS reader on Linux with a usable interface and sophisticated aggregation features.

On your computer (standalone): If you want a separate program to read feeds, you can use FeedDemon or NewsGator for Outlook or Attensa for Outlook if you're on Microsoft Windows. Both tools let you switch between these programs and the web-based reader at any time. If you're on a Macintosh running OS X, the most popular feed reader is NetNewsWire, which can also connect to the web-based services. All of these applications are installed on your local computer; meaning, if you use another computer, you will not have access to your RSS feeds.

How Do I Subscribe to an RSS Feed? (show me)

Once you have a tool to read feeds, you'll want to find some feeds worth reading. Many of the tools listed above provide some built-in feeds to get you started. Then, as you visit other sites on the web, you can keep your eyes open for links that say or or Syndication, and add the feeds you find interesting.

There is no agreed-upon standard for how to subscribe to an RSS feed, although some developers are working on this.

So there are roughly two ways to subscribe:

  • One is to enter the URL of the RSS feed into your RSS aggregator (show me how).
  • The other is to follow a subscribe link from a web page; the problem with this is that practically every aggregator has a different way of doing this.