If you browse the Internet on a regular basis, you can’t have helped but notice little symbols like this (
) or this (
) popping up all over the place. What do these icons mean? How can you use them to improve your Internet experience?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS newsfeeds are one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with what is happening on your favourite websites without having to manually visit each and every one of them everytime you spend time surfing the Web. If you’re like me, then you spend a lot of time on the Net actually revisiting favourite pages (for me it might go something like BBC News –> BBC Sport –> Wired News and so on). Wouldn’t it be easier if all of the latest stories from each of these sites could be brought together into one place for me to browse? RSS makes this happen.
OK, so we’ve established that RSS is a good idea in principle. But what do we have to do to actually use RSS newsfeeds? Basically, there are two possible ways to access your favourite RSS newsfeeds:
- Subscribe to a news aggregrator online service. Examples of these include Bloglines, My Yahoo and Newsgator. The advantage of using an online service is that you can access your RSS feeds from anywhere in the world.
- Download and install a newsreader program like Awasu. This will give you extra features and more control over the way you receive your newsfeeds, but, of course, you need to have access to a PC with the software installed.