RSS - A brief introduction

Many of you may have seen the logo (right) wondered what it represents or heard of RSS and thought it was some kind of repetitive strain syndrome or something else just as bewildering. Well it's actual name may still be as baffling - Really Simple Syndication. I know it all sounds a bit geeky, but we'll cut through the jargon and explain what use this information delivery system can be to you.

If you regularly use the internet, chances are you'll be visiting some sites regularly just to check out what they've got to say or keep up to date with latest news, technologies, opinions etc. RSS is an easy way to see this information in one place. If, like me, you pull all of your relevant RSS feeds into your iGoogle page you save a lot of time by not having to visit lots of sites to see what may be relevant and cherry pick the ones that are.

How do you start using RSS feeds?
In general the first thing you'll require is a news reader (sometimes called aggregator). This can be a standalone piece of software (most are free to download) or a web page that pulls in your chosen feeds. My favourite, as I said, is iGoogle, this means when I log into, or refresh my Google page all of the latest stories are there for me. To set up iGoogle or your news reader you must tell it which feed(s) you want to view. This is done by finding a feed you wish subscribe to. Below I highlight the sports feed on the BBC site.

Once you've clicked on this 'sports feeds' link you'll be presented with a whole list of feeds to choose from (and a further explanation about RSS), click on one of these and you should get some idea of how your browser renders RSS. In your URL bar is your RSS (sometimes called XML) feed location (see below). Copy this and paste it into the relevant place in your news reader and it's as simple as that. Everytime you open your news reader new articles are fed straight to you.

Do check out iGoogle it's a fantastic free service, Yahoo also offer something very similar.

In later issues From the Fishbowl we'll explain how your site can benefit from having an RSS feed.

Till next time happy subscribing, there's lots of sites that can 'push' you info.

For all of your web related needs, why not give us a call to see if we can help? Our number is 01858 469988 or email us on steve@cagedfish.co.uk
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