What is RSS?
The World Wide Web is forever changing, millions of webpages are being updated even as you read this! But keeping track of all these changes can be tiresome.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to have all your favourite website's delivered directly to you, so that you know when they have been updated, rather than clicking from one website to another?
This is where RSS comes to your rescue! You can add have all of your favourite news reports, articles, audio files delivered to the one place without having to visit each site day in day out.
In simple terms, it takes away all the hassle and does it all for you!
Across the internet people have discussed what RSS really stands for, but it is popularly known as Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed is really just a web page, which is created by a webmaster to be read by computers and displayed by you.
There are many website's who do not offer RSS feeds, but this is something that is growing in popularity as more people become familiar with the useage of this technology.
How do I use RSS?
If you are looking to subscribe to a A1GP RSS feed, the chances are you will have already subscribed to a similar service. If this is your first RSS subscription then you will need a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks for RSS feeds that you have subscribed to and lets you read new articles as and when they are updated.
With the growing popularity of RSS feeds, many service providers are now offering browser based subscriptions, such as Google, MSN, Yahoo and AOL. The only difference with the browser based services is that you can view your feeds from any internet connected computer in the world.
Once you have selected your preferred method of displaying RSS feeds, you can now choose the ones you wish to subscribe too. When visiting a website look for this icon:
By clicking on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways.
- Dragging the URL into your news reader.
- Copying and Pasting the URL into your news reader.
Some browsers such as IE7, Firefox, Safari and Opera automatically check for RSS readers for you, for more information about how they do this, please check there website directly.
How do I get a news reader?
With the diversity of the web, different operating systems people use and the many browsers on offer getting a news reader will depend on each individual. The below links are just a few of many on offer (A1GP are not responsible for third party websites):
Windows:
Mac OS X:
Web:
Browser:
Other news readers: