RSS Feed
What is RSS?
RSS is used on my View from the Potting Shed blog to share the latest news posted on this site.
As there are now billions of web pages on the internet, keeping up to date with your favourite websites can be a time consuming business. Up until now you will have had to click from site to site to find the information that you want.
But now you can have all the latest news delivered directly to your computer using a clever service called RSS, that is as quick and easy to use as downloading your e-mail.
This information is delivered as an XML file called an RSS feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. An orange rectangle with the letters XML or RSS is often used as a link to a site’s RSS feed. This is slowly being replaced with the orange RSS ‘broadcast’ icon that you can see on this site.
RSS, which stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date with your favourite websites, by allowing you to identify the content that you like and having it delivered directly to you.
It is now very common to find RSS feeds on most major web sites, as well as many smaller ones.
How can I access the RSS feed?
You will need a software application called a News Reader, (sometimes also called a Feed Reader, or News Aggregator) which can check RSS-enabled webpages, such as this one, and display any updated articles that it finds.
There are many different versions available. Some are accessed using a web browser (such as Mozilla Firefox), while some are downloadable, standalone applications that you need to install.
You can find a list of RSS News Readers on the Google Directory. These are organized into categories by operating system (eg Windows, Mac, Linux) and those that are web-based; many are free to use.
Whichever version you chose it will allow you to subscribe to and display the RSS feed that you want. The software typically downloads an excerpt of each of the latest news stories from the feeds that you have subscribed to, along with a link to read the full version of the content.
My favourite RSS Readers
My favourite RSS Reader for Windows XP is FeedDemon by Bradbury Software, which you have to buy. I’ve also used RSS Reader, which is free.
Mozilla Firefox’s Live Bookmarks are also very good, although I’m told that the RSS features in the Mac-only Safari browser are the best.
Subscribe to our RSS feed
If you already have a feed reader installed, click either the orange icon:
or the link below:
feed:http://blog.garethjmsaunders.co.uk/feed/
If you are using Mozilla Firefox — and there’s no excuse why you shouldn’t be! — simply click on the orange RSS feed button in the address bar:
