Howard Riley web designer Black and White Pixels

What exactly are RSS FEEDS?

RSS is simply a method of keeping up to date with changes on websites in real time without having to visit the site itself, this can be in terms of breaking news stories on BBC, changes in weblog content (like changes on this page for example) or anything that changes on a regular basis.

I suppose that leaves us with three questions to answer.

1. How do I use RSS?
2. What can I subscribe to with RSS?
3. What value is it to me?

Well, in answer to the first question, I personally use RSS in my Firefox internet Browser. Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) is purely an internet browser, same as Internet explorer, only it has far more functionality.

If I visit a website and firefox displays the RSS symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the window, I know that there is an RSS feed and I can right click on it and choose to save it in either my bookmarks folder or more beneficially for me as an icon on the toolbar. This way when I begin browsing on the Net I simply hover over the various icons, BBC News, New Scientist, Wired etc and see what topics/stories are currently being covered on their websites. Apart from Firefox it is also possible to read RSS feeds using Thunderbird, a free open source Email application from Mozilla, (www.mozilla.com/thunderbird) or through software known as RSS readers, check on google for more information about these.

Right, so second question was what is there to subscribe to? Now bearing in mind that 'subscribe' doesnt mean, either at cost, as RSS feeds are generally free, or for a fixed period, you can pretty much pick up the feeds and 'keep em if you like em or discard if ya dont'

For a list of RSS feeds visit The RSS Hotlist for the top 100 subscribed to feeds or just look about for the RSS symbol while browsing.

The final question with regards to value, well, to the news junkie, I put myself firmly in that camp, RSS is an invaluable way of making use of the worlds internets news capabilities whilst still giving yourself time to leave the house. Sometimes anyway.

I was talking with a friend today and he asked me what the business value of RSS was, well, quite simply if you have information that people want or need to keep up to date with, RSS deals with this in a simple and hassle free way, and let's face it, it can't hurt your company profile to have your company name on your client's internet browser either.