RSS ~ Really Simple Syndication

What is RSS?  RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” The RSS data feed allows you to manage content from many different websites in a single location. First let’s imagine that every television show has it’s own channel. They’re always broadcasting, and you can watch any show, anytime you want if you can find it among the thousands if not millions of channels. Before long, it would be nearly impossible to follow all of your favorite shows.

Now imagine the convenience of being able to direct all of your favorite shows to a single channel and tune in to that channel whenever you want. RSS acts as a web content syndicate to group information from all of your websites into a single location. Most RSS readers will bring in new content from your favorite websites several times a day. Although the traditional RSS feed contained only text information, many websites currently use the RSS designation for all kinds of content including text, sound, video, or other data.

How do I sign up to receive an RSS feed?  A few years ago, it was necessary to have a special computer program dedicated solely to managing this stream of content. You can still do this using a program like Feed Demon and many others, but there are two easier methods. (1) Sign up using your home computer. Most of the time, you won’t need to do anything more than click a single button. (2) Sign up using a web-based feed reader. You will need to create an account, but this option allows you to access all of your favorite feeds from any computer that has Internet access.

1. Find the link to the RSS feed. Look for this logo: , the word subscribe, or simply the letters RSS.
2. Try clicking on it. If nothing happens, try looking for something “clickable” nearby.
3. After clicking on the link, you might be taken to another page with information about the rss feed and an invitation to click a link below.
   

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   1. Use your web browser to manage the RSS feed
   2. With Internet Explorer 7 and later, clicking on this link will automatically add the RSS feed to you Favorites.
   3. In other browsers, you will need to bookmark the RSS feed page.

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   1. Use an online service to manage the RSS feed
   2. You will need to have a “login” with Yahoo or another online RSS reader service.
   3. Go the address bar of your browser window and copy the web address by highlighting it and pressing Ctrl+C.
   4. Visit my.yahoo.com and click + Add Content. An interactive menu will open.
   5. Click Add RSS Feed.
   6. Paste the address of the RSS feed (you copied it in a previous step) into the space provided.
   7. Click Add. You can keep repeating the same copy, paste, click method above to add as many RSS feeds as you want.
   8. Click “I’m Done” to indicate that you are finished adding feeds.

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4. If still can’t find a link to an RSS feed, keep in mind that a large number of websites don’t publish an RSS feed, so your favorite site might not offer this service.