What Is RSS
And How Do I Use It?
There's a new kid called "RSS" in internet-town! You see 
buttons on many web sites these days. So what is RSS and how do I use it?
What Is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Many websites use it to provide their users
with news feeds.
A news organization like Reuters has RSS feeds containing all their current top stories. They update their feeds
every time a new news article enters circulation. Some RSS feeds are updated as often as every few minutes.
Other websites, like Build Web Site Traffic, may have a feed that contains information about the latest
additions or updates to the site, like when new articles are posted about building a website or increasing website traffic.
One of the cool things about RSS is that it allows you to stay up-to-date with a your favorite topics without
giving your email address away. If you get lots of SPAM in your email inbox, you can probably appreciate the significance
of that benefit!
How Do I Use RSS?
To use RSS, you will need an RSS Reader. Then you simply get the URL of the RSS feed you're interested
in and add it to your RSS Reader.
You can subscribe to many different RSS feeds and stay up to date with a wide variety of topics from the comfort
and convenience of one RSS Reader.
Your RSS Reader will then check your RSS feed periodically and immediately show you any new articles that have been
added to the RSS feed.
Each news item in the RSS feed will contain a title for the article, a short description of the contents of the
article, and a link to the full article if you are interested in reading the whole article.
Where Do I Get An RSS Reader?
There are two kinds of RSS Readers available:
- Desktop RSS Readers
- Web-based RSS Readers
Desktop RSS Readers
Desktop RSS readers are software that you install on your computer, just like any other software you have installed on
your computer before. There are many free RSS Readers available.
Some of the popular readers are (by operating system):
These aren't the only RSS readers out there. To get other options, enter "rss readers" in the search box below.
Web-based RSS Readers
Websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. let users have personalized home pages. You create an account with them and sign
on to your account. You can then personalize the home page for this site by adding your own content.
One of the things you can add to your personalized home page, is one or more RSS feeds. All you'll need is the
URL of the RSS feed you want to add, and the contents of your newly-added RSS feed will show up on your personalized
home page.
Some websites offer buttons like 
to add their RSS feed directly to your personalized home page with one click.
The benefit of web-based RSS readers is that you can access your RSS feeds from any computer that is connected
to the Internet. All you do is sign on to your personlized home page.
Once you've decided which RSS option you want to use, subscribe to our RSS feed by right-clicking on
and copying the link location and pasting it into your RSS Reader.
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