What are News Feeds?

News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content in real-time, without having to visit the websites over and over again.

Feeds are also known as RSS, which in techie-speak translates to 'Really Simple Syndication'. Basically, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.

How do I start using feeds?

The first thing you need is something called a news reader or aggregator (a list of which you can find here). The reader checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.

Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it to receive. For example, say you'd like to read the latest Room Eight postings, all you have to do is click on that ubiquitous orange icon.

If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier.

Hat-tip: BBC