What is RSS and How do you subscribe to a blog?

What is RSS?

Short for “really simple syndicationâ€, “rich site summary†and “RDF site summaryâ€. It is a format used for sharing updated information such as news or blog postings. Users may subscribe to this information by subscribing to it and it through an RSS Reader/Feed Reader.

So how do you subscribe to a blog?

All blogs have an RSS feed, think of this as a channel on your television. In order to watch your favourite program you must know what channel the program will be on so that you can set your TV to that channel. For a blog you have to know what channel to program your feed reader to.

There are a number of ways to subscribe to a blog. Here are just a few options.

1) Subscribe by E-mail

This is obviously the easiest way to sign up for a blog, when it is made available. It’s just like signing up for a newsletter. Simply enter your email address, press submit and then enter the verification code that appears in the pop-up window. It is normally located on the left or right hand menus. You can see our sign-up form on the right hand side of our blog.

2) Subscribe through Internet Explorer

If you use Internet Explorer, go to help -> about to see what version you have. If your version is Internet Explorer 7, then you can subscribe to a blog through their built in RSS Feeds.

1) First enter the address of the blog you want to subscribe to.

2) Locate the orange RSS icon and press it.

3) Locate and press “Subscribe to this feed”.

 

4) A new window will appear, press subscribe. This step will place this blog’s feed into your Internet Explorer feed reader, it’s basically bookmarking the blog’s feed for you.

5) Now to access this feed, click the star button on the top left corner of Internet Explorer and then press the feeds button.

6) All of the feeds you have subscribed to will be listed. Click on the link to view that feed and read their latest posts.

3) Subscribe through a Feed Reader

Feed readers such as www.newsgator.com, www.bloglines.com, www.technorati.com and www.google.com/reader allow you to set up your own account and add blogs’ feed addresses to your favourites.

How do you find a blog’s feed address?

In FireFox:

Click the orange RSS icon on the address bar

The blog’s RSS feed address will appear. Be sure to add this address to your RSS feed reader account in order to subscribe to the blog.

In Internet Explorer:

Click the orange RSS icon on the tool bar

The blog’s RSS feed address will appear. Be sure to add this address to your RSS feed reader account in order to subscribe to the blog.

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Written by Sandra De Freitas

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Add comment February 5th, 2008