What is RSS? News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new
content. You can get the latest headlines in one place. The information is available to you as
soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have
taken the feed from.
The information in these "feeds" can be in the form of headlines, summaries, or podcasts. Feeds are sometimes referred to as RSS,"Really Simple
Syndication". In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages,
designed to be read by computers rather than people.
RSS/News Aggregators:
To view the headlines, add the feed to an RSS/News Aggregators (also
called a reader), or to a browser (such as Safari for Mac OS X) that
supports RSS feeds. An RSS reader will download and display RSS feeds
for you. A number of free and commercial RSS readers are available for
download, including Amphetadesk for Windows, Mac, Linux; Feedreader for
Windows; and NewsFire for Mac OS.
Many aggregators are separate, "stand-alone" programs; other
services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page.
Live Bookmarks: The Firefox browser
supports Live Bookmarks, a system that detects RSS feeds and allows
users to subscribe. Look for this icon in the bottom right corner of
your browser, and click on it to subscribe. Feeds will appear in your
Bookmarks list. wrvo offers Live Bookmarks on all program and topic
pages.
Blogs/Weblogs: Another way many people
use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or "blogs".
Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated
items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool is used for many
purposes: traditional journalism, personal journals, group discussions
around a topic, and many combinations in-between
Additional reading: BBC RSS information Wikipedia information on RSS Newsgator Learning Center
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