RSS - What is it?

[Conrad]

Some of you might have noticed the RSS icon on the Arran Banner website.

RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication.

(Really Simple Syndication) is a method of receiving constantly updated links to your chosen websites. Once you have set up a connection to a website you will receive a list of all the stories currently shown on a certain page of that site.


From Wikipedia : RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

In simple terms, you can have the latest stories from the Arran Banner Website fed to your desktop as soon as they are published.

How do you do this?

If you use Mozilla Thunderbird to read your email you can add the feed to Thunderbirds built in RSS plug-in. Modern browsers have this feature already enabled so in Firefox and Safari (Mac) look out for the icon in your address bar.

The easiest way to receive the feed on your desktop is to download a program called a news reader or aggregator. Outlook and Outlook Express does not have this feature enabled by default.

You can read about plug ins or software from here.

If you prefer to keep new software off your computer for now, try Google Reader


Disclaimer:
Please note that as with any new software, it is your responsibility to scan them for viruses and check that they will be compatible with your system.