What Does This Symbol Mean?

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites. In the ‘old days’ of the web  you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication'. Many people describe it as a ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to.

RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want as soon as it’s published. RSS readers allow you to subscribe to RSS Feeds and then read content or follow links for additional information. Common RSS readers include Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.

Over the last few years you may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. They come in all shapes and sizes, like the ones to the right.

There are plenty more - but any time you see one of these buttons, it means that the site you are viewing has a feed that you can subscribe to. In most cases it's as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice.

Microsoft Outlook users:

Using Mircrosoft Outlook 2007  to subscribe to a RSS Feed is quick and easy and does not involve a registration process or fee. After you subscribe to a RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. RSS items appear similar to email messages. When you see a headline that interests you, just click or open the item.

To add a RSS Feed through the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Account Settings dialog box:

1. From the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
2. On the RSS Feeds tab, click New
3. In the New RSS Feed dialog box, type or press CTRL+V to paste the URL of the RSS Feed. For example: http://www.example.com/feed.main.xml
4. Click Add
5. Click OK

For a quick and fun video tutorial entitled RSS In Plain English, watch this: