What is RSS?

RSS is a standard for text formatting. The advantage of this is that a computer program can interpret the contents. This allows also other devices then PC to display the contents.

What is a RSS feed?

When a text file with the RSS format is frequently updated, it is called an RSS feed. Websites with an RSS feed are often recognisable by icons: an XML button or RSS button. Keywords like RSS, RDF, XML or 'syndicate' are also an indicator of the presence of RSS Feeds. RSS feeds are also called webfeeds.
The icon or a keyword is a hyperlink to a RSS page written in XML. With a click on the right mouse button you can copy the address of that page and past it into an RSS Reader. Some RSS readers have an 'auto discover' option, that automatically detect RSS output.

Why should I use RSS?

RSS makes it a lot easies for you to receive and process new information. Let's say that you visit 15 sites each day to see of there is anything new. This means that you have to open a browser and surf at least 15 pages. When you have 15 RSS feeds in a reader, you can immediately see in one overview, if there is new content. You can easily read the things that are of interest to you. And if you still want to visit the website, a click on the article will take you there.

What do I need to read RSS?

The most widely used application of RSS is the so called RSS-readers. A RSS reader gathers the headlines and intros of your webfeeds on one page, in categories. When there is something of your interest, you just click on it to read the whole story or visit the website. They are available in all varieties for all platforms (Mac, Windows en Linux). All of them collect and show an overview of your selection of content from the web, they notify you when new information is available. They are either web based or available for installation on your system (desktop). We suggest the following web based RSS readers

• Bloglines
• Newsgator online
• MSN.com

We suggest the following desktop readers

• Feedreader (Windows; free)
• RSSReader (Windows; free)
• Sharpreader (Windows; free)
• Desktop sidebar (Windows, free)
• AmphetaDesk (Linux,Mac, Windows; free)
• NetNewsWire(Mac; not free)
• NewzCrawler (Windows; not free)
• Feeddemon (Windows, not free)
• Newsgator (Windows, not free)

View all available RSS feeds.