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RSS Feeds

News

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an easy way to keep updated: instead of going to a website, the website will send you a message every time there is something new. Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity throughout the internet.

How can I use RSS?

There are a number of ways to access RSS feeds. You can install a news reader that displays RSS feeds from the Web sites you select, enabling you to view hundreds of headlines at once. After installing the news reader, you can add each feed manually from the Web site by clicking on the "Subscribe" or the "RSS" orange button next to the feed.

An alternative to downloading a dedicated news reader is to use a Web-based news reader. For example, My Yahoo! users can now add RSS feeds directly to their personal page.

News Readers

There are a number of RSS aggregators online, many of them free, so with a little bit of searching, you should be able to find an interface that appeals to you. Below are a few links to various examples:

• RSS Reader
• Newz Crawler
• Sharp Reader
• NewsGator
• Bloglines
• My Yahoo!
• Google listing of RSS aggregators

Further Help

Validation
RSS is a dialect of XML. All RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification, as published on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website. They can be validated by http://validator.w3.org/feed/