What’s an RSS Feed?

Just About the Greatest Technology for the Internet

There have been several questions about what the “Feeds” button on the far right side of the menu bar means. The orange symbol resembling an antenna with outward-bound waves is the icon for an RSS feed. The initials “RSS” stand for “Really Simple Syndication,” and the technology allows subscribers to have new content automatically delivered to their computer whenever a site is updated. The days of checking back through bookmarks are over.

To get an RSS notification, users will have to have free software on their computers known as “news aggregators.” These small programs can be stand-alone applications or work within email programs such as Outlook. They’re very easy to understand and use, because they resemble common email programs.

The difference is that users can subscribe to a wide variety of topics through their aggregator program and organize the content in folders. Bloggers such as myself frequently update our content, and when we do, the information is automatically sent to the folder it’s assigned to in your reader. In the morning, simply click through the folders to find the latest news in your own personalized newspaper. I highly recommend it.

Go to What is RSS.com to read more about RSS feeds and how to set up a news aggregator. RSS feeds are all over the Internet, and they’re an excellent way to keep up on the buzz about any issue in which you have an interest.