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What's RSS?

A quick way to keep up-to-date with new stuff on your favourite websites!

RSS feeds (or news feeds) allow you to view the latest headlines (and a bit of a description about the news item) without actually having to go to the website. If you're interested in the news item, you can then click on the news headline to be taken to the particular website where you can read the full article.

RSS, RSS feeds and news feeds are all terms used to describe this means of delivering content to you. You can also get audio podcasts (coming soon to Phoenix!) - basically a feed filled with audio content that you can download to your Ipod or mp3 player.

RSS feeds are usually indicated with the following icon:

How does it work?

There are a number of different ways that you can 'view RSS feeds'. Each of them involves a piece of software (a feed reader) that checks the relevant website for feed updates. This software can be integrated into your browser or email client, can be a standalone application or can be web-based.

1. Web-based feed readers enable you to access your feeds from any computer. The 3 main ones are:
   • Bloglines (external link)
   • Newsgator (external link)
   • Google Reader (external link) - integrates with Google mail
2. Standalone readers let you store feeds on your computer, but you may not be able to check them from any other computer. (Although there are some standalone readers which enable you to synchronise your feeds on your pc/Mac and on mobile devices.) Example standalone readers include:
   • Feedreader (external link) - Windows based, free
   • Shrook (external link) - for Mac users
3. Readers which integrate with your browser/email client include:
   • Sage (external link) - an extension for Firefox
   • Safari RSS - comes with Safari for OSx 10.4
   • Thunderbird (external link) - for Windows, Mac and Linux
   • IE 7 (external link) and Firefox 2 (external link) both have built-in RSS support

The example readers listed above are a small selection of those freely available. There are many others available at a small cost, but it's probably best to try one of the free versions above first. Once you've decided how you'd like to view RSS feeds, the next thing is to subscribe to feeds.

Help! Which should I choose?

Can't decide? Try Bloglines (external link) or Google Reader (external link) if you use Google Mail - you don't need to install anything on your pc.

Subscribing to feeds

You can 'subscribe' to feeds in a number of different ways, but perhaps the simplest is to copy and paste the URL (web address) of the feed into the news reader.

• Some browsers, such as Firefox and Safari, will display the RSS icon when they find a feed on a website that you're visiting, making it easier for you to subscribe to the feed.
• Some feed readers will also allow you to search for feeds. This is useful if you know one or two words in the feed title.

Still confused?

The BBC page about RSS feeds (external link) provides further information.

Just want the feed?

Grab the Phoenix RSS feed