What are they, and how can I use them?

An RSS feed (it stands for Really Simple Syndication) is basically a live update from a website.  There are two ways to use RSS feeds. You can supply a feed from your website for anyone who might be interested, and you can subscribe to a feed from websites that interest you.

Websites that publish an RSS feed will show a small icon like this

Well, in theory it gets your content out to more people and more often. Otherwise you depend on people coming back to your website to look for new content. If you have a site with a potentially big audience and lots of new, interesting content it’s a great way to get it out there even further.

Why and how would to subscribe to an RSS feed?

If you have a specialist interest in a topic its a good way to keep up to date with new content on various websites.  Its a bit like bookmarking, but better if you want to keep up to date regularly with whats on the site.

To do this you need an RRS reader capability in your browser or a RSS software.  If you use Internet Explorer 7, you could download the Windows Live toobar http://get.live.com/toolbar/overview . It comes with  a tool which lets you detect and add feeds to your Live.com home page with a single click. they also appear in the tab beside your History (click the yellow star on the top left of IE 7).

Provide someone else’s feed on your website

In my view this is way that most website owners will make use of RSS feeds. Most websites are small fish in a big pond. However the people who visit your website might well appreciate information about your topic from other sources as well.  A good example of this is shown on the website of Premier Sports in Comber, Co Down. They sell cricket gear, so, not surprisingly, visitors are cricket players. On this page  (beneath useful links) an RSS feed is provided from the BBC Cricket news web page.

So in this case its a free way to add value and interest to your own website.

More information about RSS feeds

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2175271