What is RSS?

Put simply, RSS is a method of letting you know when a website that you are interested in has new or updated content, so instead of having to manually check your favourite sites for updates, you can sit back and wait for them to come to you.

There are a few ways that you can receive RSS "feeds".  Most modern web browsers support RSS right in the browser itself, and this is probably the quickest and easiest way to get started, because you probably already have the software installed on your computer.

If your browser doesn't support RSS, there are a number of websites that allow you to receive and view RSS feeds, and a selection of these are shown on the right-hand side of this page, in the "Subscribe" box.

Alternatively, you can use a piece of software known as a "news reader" or "aggregator".  There are a number of these available to download and install (many of which are free) and there are links to a few to the right of this page.  This software will require you to enter the URL (address) of the RSS feed to subscribe to, and mine can be found here.

What is contained in an RSS feed will vary from site to site, but broadly speaking there are two main types.  The first type provides a basic headline and description for each new item on the website.  Each item will also include a link back to the site itself allowing you to easily see the new content.  The second type includes more content so you can read the complete content of the feed without having to go to the actual website.  This is often referred to as syndication.

This website provides the first type of basic "headline" feed, because I believe that this works best if you are using the RSS capabilities of your browser.