As more and more web browsers have the ability to ‘read’ RSS feeds built-in, it’s getting easier to take advantage of the ease of RSS feeds.

RSS feeds are fast becoming a standard way of distributing content on the web. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a way of enabling your computer to automatically search nominated sites for updated content. So you can have the latest information without spending hours searching for it. 

You’ve probably seen lots of links to RSS feeds on websites – usually a little orange button. Until recently, subscribing to a feed was a tad complicated because it involved another bit of software (an RSS reader or aggregator) and some fiddling around. Well not anymore…

In a bid to make accessing RSS feeds easier most browsers have begun to incorporate the RSS reader into the browser allowing for a much simpler subscription process. 

Newer browsers such as Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 2.0 or Netscape 8.1.2 have built in RSS readers (To find out what browser version you are using go to help and then about (name of your browser).  

If you click on the icon for a feed and get a lot of code, you probably have an old browser – consider updating your browser or alternatively downloading an RSS reader (many are available free).

Here are the instructions for subscribing to a feed with Internet Explorer 7

1. Go to the webpage that has the feed to which you want to subscribe.
2. Click the Feeds button
    to discover feeds on the webpage.
3. Click a feed (if more than one is available). If only one feed is available, you will go directly to that page.
4. Click the Subscribe to this Feed button – the add to favourites button
5.  Type a name for the feed and select the folder to create the feed in.
6. Click Subscribe.
7. To view your subscribed feeds, click the Favourites button (yellow star), and then click  Feeds.

If you get stuck just check out Internet Explorer’s help information.

Firefox RSS instructions are available at:

http://johnbokma.com/firefox/rss-and-live-bookmarks.html 

Safari RSS instructions are available at:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pm and is filed under ITD Support. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.