Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Using RSS
The little orange XML icon to the left indicates you can set up a program to automatically detect whenever anything is posted to this site.
RSS means "really simple syndication" and the basic idea is to enable users of web-based material to quickly find out about changes posted to a web site without actually having to repeatedly visit the site. A user can make their own daily newspaper. The following is a list of RSS feeds for headlines and science news. Each entry usually has a list of the available topical feeds. Most of the sites have a "What is RSS?" link so I'll only give the fundamentals. To find more feeds, simply look on your favorite website for the little orange XML or RSS icon.
- AP
- Reuters
- BBC (world news)
- Yahoo! News
- Eurekalert (service of the AAAS)
- New Scientist
- Science Daily
- National Public Radio
- NASA
Some sites implement feeds that support keyword searches. For example http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=climate+change&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt is a custom feed from Yahoo news that looks for the phrase "climate change" in the headlines.
How do you use this information? The current versions of the Netscape and Firefox browsers automatically detect and set up how to read the feed. Netscape lets you add things to your personal "multibars". Firefox implements "live bookmarks." See the help files provided for each browser. Current versions of Internet Explorer don't recognize RSS feeds; you have to go through Outlook or Outlook Express and implement the feed as an incoming e-mail.
Another option is to use a feed reader or news aggregator. This is a little program that runs in the background. It is kind of like a miniature robot web browser. The only job of the reader is to periodically visit the RSS feed sites you define and look for changes. A free and easy to use reader is available for downloading at FeedReader.com. You simply select a feed and copy the URL into the bookmark list of FeedReader; it takes care of the rest.
Finally, some services allow you to configure your own web page with feeds you select. For example, if you have a Yahoo e-mail account, you can simply log in to My Yahoo and configure what you want to see. Many feed providers associated with Yahoo have a My Yahoo button that will automatically add the feed to your Yahoo page.
