What is an RSS Feed?

"RSS" stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Basically, it's a "feed" of news headlines or blogs that are sent to you via an "RSS reader".

How to Receive a Feed: In order to receive a feed, you'll need a "feed reader" or "news aggregator". This software allows you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites. Some applications are web-based and are accessed through a browser, some are integrated into email programs such as Outlook, and some are standalone applications on your personal computer. The most popular and free feed readers are FeedReader, FeedDemon, and Google Reader.

Add Feeds to Your Reader: Once you find the feed reader that meets your needs, you just need to find sites that offer RSS feeds and then add them to the list of feeds that your reader checks. Most major news organizations such as Fox News, CNN, and Reuters produce RSS feeds. You can tell if a website has an RSS feed typically by an orange icon (see image), or the site might just display a link to "RSS". Then just provide the URL address of the RSS feed to your reader.

How the Reader Works: Your feed reader will continuously search the sites that you tell it to and immediately bring that content into the reader. The content that your RSS reader finds will be listed in date order, from newest to oldest, with a descriptive title. To view the item, just click on it to open it. Typically, blogs and news items are displayed in separate areas of the reader.

Why Use a Feed Reader: The benefits of having an RSS reader is mainly that it saves you the time of having to individually visit each of your favorite websites to see what's new. It also ensures your privacy because you no longer need to subscribe to receive updates via email, which often ends up as spam.

So get out there and get yourself an RSS reader and see what you've been missing!