How to use and manage RSS feeds

Most of us have certain websites that we visit all the time. These tend to be bookmarked or added to the browser’s toolbar so we can nip back whenever we feel like it.

However, there is a better way to get up-to-the-minute news by using RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. It delivers updates from your favourite websites straight to your computer, so you don’t need to go looking for it. We will explain how RSS works and what to do to start receiving update alerts.

Meet RSS

One of the biggest problems with the web is information overload: there is so much stuff to see that it’s easy to become overwhelmed and end up sticking to a few tried-and-trusted favourites, just to keep the overall noise level down.

RSS offers a simple way around this. Many websites, including our own, incorporate one or more ‘RSS feeds’ – typically indicated by an orange icon with white radio waves on it.

Visitors subscribe to the feed and from then on the site will ‘tell’ them whenever new content is added. So instead of having to pay regular visits to a site you can sit back and wait for the publisher to give you an electronic nudge when something has been updated.

Modern web browsers such as Internet Explorer have a special RSS button that lights up whenever pages with feeds are visited.