About Feeds
Many websites have links labeled "XML" or "RSS" or "Atom". All of these are ways
of saying that you can find out about updates to that site without
having to browse to it yourself to check.
This feature is referred to as Syndication or Aggregation, or sometimes it's just
called Subscribing. On many sites sites, instead of a link, they'll have an orange button
that says RSS or XML, or looks like this:
That's a sign that the page you're viewing has a feed available.
We've provided a little bit of information here on how you can get easily get
started reading feeds on the web for free.
Getting Started
What Do I Need?
Just like when you want to watch a video clip or listen to music on the web, you
need a "player" of some kind to subscribe to feeds. The good news is, there are
number of these tools available, and many of them are either totally free or free
to try out.
The "player" for a feed is called a feed reader. (Or sometimes
it's called a news reader or RSS reader or RSS client. All these terms mean the
same thing.) This tool lets you subscribe to any feeds you want, checks automatically
to see when they're updated, and then displays the updates for you as they arrive.
Feed readers come in two varieties: web-based, or as an installable program. If
you use one of the web-based readers, you can access your feeds from anywhere you
go, just by signing into the website that manages your feeds. If you use a feed
reading program that installs on your computer, your feeds can be stored for you
even if you're not connected to the Internet.
What Feed Reader Should I Use?
We don't have an official preference, but we can list some of the most popular tools
our customers have told us they like.
For web-based feed readers, many people choose
Attensa Online, Bloglines or
NewsGator Online, all of which are free services designed specifically
for reading feeds. My Yahoo! allows you to subscribe
to feeds and have them display within your custom page as well.
If you prefer a feed reading program that you can install on your computer,
you can use FeedDemon or
NewsGator for Microsoft Outlook or
Attensa for Outlook if you're on Microsoft Windows. Both tools let you
switch between these programs and the web-based reader at any time. If you're on
a Macintosh running OS X, the most popular feed reader is
NetNewsWire, which can also connect to the web-based services.
Mac users can also use the built-in support for feeds in the Safari web browser
in OS X 10.4, and Microsoft Windows users will have support for feeds in the upcoming
version 7 of Internet Explorer. Anyone using the
Mozilla Firefox web browser has support for feeds built-in, as well.
Subscribing to Feeds
Once you've got a tool to read feeds, you'll want to find some feeds worth reading.
Many of the tools listed above provide some built-in feeds to get you started. Then,
as you visit other sites on the web, you can keep your eyes open for links that
say XML or RSS or Syndication, or for that orange button up above, and add the feeds
you find interesting.