RSS is...Really Something
Slick. OK,
actually the most common definition is, "Really Simple
Syndication". It's simply a way to automatically get some news
from someone. The publisher creates a special feed file containing
news items and puts it in a public place. People who want to read
this news, use an RSS reader to subscribe to the feed file. This
reader periodically gets the feed file and displays the news items
from it.
Getting news this way is
much easier
than going to a website all the time and checking for anything new.
Imagine manually checking for, say, 64 news feeds. The RSS reader
can check many feeds in seconds and pop-up a notification if anything
is new.
RSS readers come in two
different
kinds. The first is the classic program running on your computer. It is
great because once the news is downloaded, items can be read
even when the computer is not connected to the Internet. A second
type of reader is in a web browser. A service accessed through this
type of page will poll each feed in the same manner as other readers.
And, of course, web-based readers can be accessed anywhere.
To subscribe to an RSS,
first get
access to a reader. For Windows, try FeedReader,
and for a web reader, get an account on BlogLines.
Once the reader is setup, you can subscribe to feeds by using the
RSS feed address (URL). If using the Firefox browser, simply
clicking on the ubiquitous orange 
button
will display the RSS
feed and present possible choices for subscription.
A good place to find more
information about feeds is the Wikipedia RSS page.
And, try subscribing to our
feed,
MyUA
News, FAQs, & Tips.
