by The Open University
Available in 48 free installments
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RSS (‘Really Simple Syndication? or ‘Rich Site Summary?) newsfeeds supply headlines, links, and article summaries from various websites. By using RSS ‘feedreader? software you can gather together a range of feeds and read them in one place: they come to you, rather than you having to go out and look for breaking news. The range of RSS feeds on offer is growing daily. There is probably a feed to cover all aspects of your life where you might need the latest information, and you may find that most of the websites you visit already offer RSS ? look for the orange button!
To set up RSS feeds, firstly you need to choose what sort of feedreader to use. There are online feedreaders, which you can access from any computer, anywhere, or desktop feedreaders, which are pieces of software which you can download and use on your own computer. Bloglines is a popular online feed reader, whilst Awasu is a desktop feedreader.
There are a number of ways of getting feeds into your feedreader, depending on which one you use. Right-clicking on the orange button might give you the option to add the link directly to your feedreader, or there may be commands built in to your feedreader to enable you to add it.
If you click on the orange icon on the BBC website, for example, you get instructions as to how to add the feed to your feedreader. You will also find that your feedreader will enable you to easily add feeds from their pre-selected content. For example, in Bloglines, once you have logged in, selecting Directory will give you a list of popular content. Choosing ‘subscribe? will add them to the ‘My Feeds? list.
Try this for yourself:
Choose a feedreader
Add some of their pre-selected content
Set up a feed to, for example, the BBC or your daily newspaper. Depending on the feedreader you have chosen, you may have to check exactly how it works to get the feeds in.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence
