Receive site updates via News Feeds

What are Updates?

Updates – otherwise known as News Feeds – are new content items added to a website. News Feeds are generally used for news items but they can be used for any content added to a website. By subscribing to Updates, or News Feeds, you will be able to see a website’s brand new articles as soon as they are published without having to visit the site. Feeds are sometimes referred to as RSS Feeds. RSS Feeds are sometimes referred to as ‘Really Simple Syndication’ or ‘Rich Site Summary’.

How can you see your News Feeds?

To see your News Feeds, you will need to download a small piece of software called a News Reader, or you can use one of the web’s many online News Readers. The benefit of viewing all your News Feeds in one place means you don’t have to visit every website that you enjoy reading. Once you have chosen to receive Feeds from a website, your News Reader will check for, and download, any new content from the selected website. Think of a News Feed as a free subscription where your new articles are delivered into your News Reader’s Inbox, much like any email system.

News Feed buttons or links

If a website has a News Feed then it should have a small orange News Feed icon, like this one. Some browsers will display this icon if they find a News Feed on a website you are visiting. Occasionally some websites don’t show the orange icon but use a standard text link instead.

News Feed subscription

To subscribe to your chosen News Feed simply click the icon and this will give you the option of dragging or copying the web address (URL) of the News Feed into your News Reader.

News Readers

There are 2 types of News Readers: browser based and downloadable. Browser based News Readers allow you to see your News Feeds from any computer with internet access whereas downloadable News Readers allow you to store your News Feeds on your computer.

Choosing your News Reader

There are many other News Readers available and new versions and updates are appearing all the time. If you wish to download one make sure you know what platform your computer is – PC or Apple Mac. If not, then you can sign up to use an online News Reader.

Downloadable News Reader for PC:

FeedDemon

Downloadable News Reader for Mac:

NetNewsWire

Online News Readers:

Bloglines
Google
NewsGator
Microsoft Live
My Yahoo!

Browser News Reader

Mozilla Firefox

Further information

More information about News Feeds and News Readers can be found on:
The BBC website
The Wikipedia website
The Google website