What Is An RSS Feed?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A syndication is a system for distributing information to a large number of people easily such as a newspaper syndication. An RSS Feed is an easy way for you to keep up with new items being posted on web sites that have RSS Feeds available, without having to visit the site first.

Once a day, or whenever you tell it to, your RSS reader will check the websites you have subscribed to for updates. If you check your RSS favorites you will be able to see if there have been any updates since the last time you looked.

You can subscribe to a Feed only if you have a program that can read an RSS file. These are called feed readers or aggregators. To subscribe to a feed, just click on the RSS icon. If you have an RSS reader, then you will see a page where you can either Subscribe to this Feed or copy the feed address into your stand alone reader. If you don't have a compatible RSS reader, then you will see a page full of gobbledegook. In that case, you need to get a reader.

Internet Explorer 7, Outlook 2007 and newer versions of FireFox have built-in Feed readers. Outlook Express version 6 does not have a Feed reader, but there are a number of Feed readers and feed reading plug-ins available on the Internet. For a free stand alone reader try this one from FeedReader.com