Bring the Web to You with RSS

The Internet can seem like an overwhelming universe of data. How do you find what you really want or need?

Many of us bookmark websites that we routinely visit when we’re looking for information, or we hunt for news using a search engine like Google or Yahoo.  For example, you might routinely search for…

• news sites to find today’s top stories;
• sites related to your profession to learn about latest research or topics of interest;
• blog sites to stay current on the latest posts.

When you need to get information from the web, a faster, more efficient way is to use something called RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

The concept of RSS is similar to subscribing to magazines or newsletters that interest you. But instead of getting the content in the mail from the post office, RSS content gets delivered to you from the Web via a FEED.

About Feeds

This symbol is the most commonly used icon on websites to designate an RSS feed. When you see that icon on a website it means you can subscribe to that site to find out about updates without having to repeatedly visit the site in your browser.

To take advantage of RSS:

1.      Get a feed reader (Outlook 2007 has a built-in feed reader, or you can use a web-based tool).

2.      Subscribe to RSS feeds.

3.      Read and manage the feeds you receive.

Let’s take a closer look at this process.

Use Outlook 2007 as your Feed Reader

There are several ways to get RSS content delivered automatically to your Outlook 2007 email account. The easiest way is to simply go to a website that has an RSS feed and click the RSS icon.

For example, let’s say I frequently visit the Food Safety and Biosecurity page of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service website. Near the top of that page there is an RSS icon (click to see larger image).

When I click that RSS icon, I then see a list of all the feeds in the CSREES website.

Each topic area in this particular site has its own RSS feed. I can click the RSS icon next to any feed I’m interested in.

For the sake of this example, I’ll click the RSS icon next to Food Safety.

The subscription page for the CSREES Food Safety and Biosecurity Program will open.  I’ll select Microsoft Outlook from the pull-down menu and click Subscribe Now.

The following dialog box will open in Outlook and I’ll click the Yes button to subscribe to that site’s feed via Outlook.

Now a folder is displayed for the RSS Feed in my Outlook’s navigation pane:

From this point forward, Outlook will automatically check the RSS publisher’s server for new and updated items on a regular schedule. When I open the folder, the latest items downloaded from the RSS Feed are displayed. I can open, read, and delete these RSS items just as I would any mail message. I can even move, flag or forward the information to someone else.

What if you don’t have Outlook 2007?

Although Outlook 2007 has a built-in RSS reader, many of you may not have Outlook 2007 yet or would prefer to access your RSS feeds in another way. Fortunately, there are several other options for you.

Feed Readers

There are many different feed reading applications or “news aggregators.”  Most of these services are free and you simply need to create a user account. Some require that you download software, others do not. Typically a feed reader will display your feeds (subscriptions) and the number of new posts or articles for each feed.  If you subscribe to several feeds, you can go directly to your feed reader to view all your favorite sites’ updates in one place. You can also subscribe to additional feeds right within the feed reader itself. Most feed reading applications will have built-in help features to get you started.

Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) is an example of a feed reader and it looks something like this (click to see larger image):

Other popular feed readers are:

• Google Reader (www.google.com/reader)
• FeedDemon (www.newsgator.com)
• FeedReader (www.feedreader.com)

Personal Portals

iGoogle, My Yahoo! and other personal portals are personalized homepages that contain a search box and a number of customizable gadgets including RSS readers.
You can create a personalized homepage in your browser to read your feeds within the first page that opens when you start your browser. Here is an example of an iGoogle home page showing RSS feeds (click to see larger image).

For more information about personal portals see:

• Getting started with iGoogle: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=9002
• Getting started with My Yahoo!
  http://help.yahoo.com/tutorials/my2/mycham/my_start1.html

Built-in RSS  Support in your Browser

Mozilla Firefox web browser has built-in support for RSS feeds (called Live Bookmarks) as does IE (versions 7 or newer) and Safari.

Firefox

In Firefox, you can subscribe to an RSS feed using Live Bookmarks. When you visit a site using Firefox you may see the orange RSS icon in the right most part of the address bar (version 1.5 and later).

You can subscribe to that site’s feed(s) by clicking the orange icon. If there is more than one RSS feed for that site, Firefox shows a list from which you can pick one.

A yellow bar will appear giving you the option to subscribe to that site’s feed. Select Live Bookmarks from the pull-down menu. (Note that you could also select Microsoft Outlook.)

The Add Live Bookmark dialog box will open. Create the bookmark in the Bookmarks Toolbar which will show up under the navigation toolbar and you’ll be able to access the Live Bookmark very quickly and easily. Click Add.

If you have your bookmarks toolbar activated (go to Firefox’s VIEW menu, select TOOLBARS, and then BOOKMARKS), you’ll see all your RSS feeds listed under the navigation toolbar (click to see larger image):

Click the Live Bookmark to see a list of recent articles from the feed plus a link to the main site where the feed came from.

Internet Explorer 7

If a website has RSS feeds, IE 7 will illuminate the FEEDS button.

Click the button and IE will display the feeds page (click to see larger image)

Click Subscribe to this feed.

A dialog box will open and will display the name of the feed and the option to create that feed the Feeds folder. You can create a new folder if you’d like by clicking the New folder button.

Click the Subscribe button. The feed will be automatically added to IE’s Favorites Center and will be kept up to date.

To access IE’s Favorites Center, click the yellow star icon: 

The Favorites Center will open. Click Feeds to view your RSS subscriptions.

For more information:

• How to subscribe to RSS feeds with Internet Explorer 7
  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/tour/rss/
  
• How to subscribe to RSS feeds with Safari 2.0
  http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/2.0/en/ibr1087.html