How to use an RSS or news feed

Many websites that are regularly updated have an RSS feed, also known as a ‘news feed’. This allows you to see updated content quickly and easily without having to navigate to the actual site. ‘RSS’ stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’.

 

Once you’ve subscribed to an RSS feed, the information that it consists of will be downloaded on to your computer using a program called a ‘feed reader’. Internet Explorer, Firefox and other browsers have built-in feed readers. If you have a Google account, you can use the Google feed reader. This has the added advantage that you can sign into it on any computer, not just your own.

 

In this article, we’ll be looking at how to use the feed readers in Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Google.

 

 

In Internet Explorer, the RSS icon is in the toolbar. When you visit a site that has an RSS feed, it will turn orange.

 

 

In the latest versions of Firefox, the RSS icon – known within Firefox as the ‘Subscribe’ button – no longer appears automatically at the end of the address bar. To put it on your bookmarks toolbar, click View, then Toolbars, then Customize. Scroll down until you see the ‘Subscribe’ button. Drag it to the bookmarks toolbar, where it will automatically park itself at one end.

 

 

To subscribe to an RSS feed, all you need to do is click on the icon when you’re on a website that has such a feed. This will take you to a page where you can subscribe to it.

 

 

Step 1: You first need to find a website that has a feed. For the purposes of this exercise, use the one on the BBC News site. Click the RSS icon. This brings up a page where you can subscribe to the feed.

 

 

Step 2: Click Subscribe to this feed. As part of the subscribing process, you can also choose to have a link to that specific feed in your Favorites Bar. In the box that appears when you click Subscribe, make a tick in the square labelled ‘Add to Favorites Bar’.

 

 

Step 3: There’s now a link to the BBC News feed in the Favorites Bar. When you click this, you’ll get a list of all the feeds – that is, news stories – from that site. All you have to do is click on an item to read the full story as it appears on the site.

 

 

Step 4: To see all the feeds that that you’ve subscribed to from different sites, go to the Favorites Center and click Feeds. Here, you’ll see that the BBC News feed has been added.

 

 

 

Step 1: Again, for the purposes of this exercise, go to the BBC News site and click on the RSS icon there. When asked, say that you want to subscribe using ‘Live Bookmarks’, which is the Firefox feed reader. You’ll find more information about this on the Mozilla Firefox website.

 

Step 2: You’ll now see a box listing the website whose feeds you want to access. Click Subscribe.

 

 

You should now see an icon in the bookmarks toolbar. Click it to see the list of stories from that newsfeed. Click any link in the list to go to the site and read the full story.

 

 

 

If you use the Google feed reader, you’ll be able to sign in and see your RSS feeds on any computer, anywhere in the world. To find the reader, go to the Google website, click more in the dropdown Google menu and choose Reader.

 

 

Now, sign into your Google account as normal. If you don’t have one, have a look at our guide How to create a Gmail account (you don’t have to go on to use Gmail if you don’t want to).

 

Open a new tab in your web browser and go to the website with an RSS feed you want to subscribe to. Again, we’re using the BBC News feed.

 

 

Click in the address bar so that the address (also known as the ‘url’) of the desired website is highlighted blue. Copy the address by holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then pressing C. Now click the Google Reader tab again and click on SUBSCRIBE. Then paste the url – by holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then pressing V – into the text box that will open up under the Subscribe button. Then click Add.

 

 

Now when you sign into Google Reader, you’ll see a list of your subscriptions, or ‘feeds’. When you click one of these, you’ll be given the updates from that site. Click any of these to go to the site and read the full story.

 

You can also search for feeds on a particular subject. Type a subject into the ‘Add a subscription’ box and click Add.

 

 

Google Reader will now search for relevant feeds and produce a list. Click the Subscribe button underneath any of the search results to subscribe to that feed.