What is a news feed?

A news feed allows you to see when a website has added new content. You are alerted to the latest changes, as soon as they are published, without having to visit the website you have taken the feed from. Feeds are also known as RSS, usually assumed to stand for 'Really Simple Syndication'. 

How do you start using a feed?

Some browsers, such as Firefox and Safari enable you to add a "Live Bookmark" to the toolbar when you click on the orange RSS icon.

Internet Explorer 7 has this icon by default - but make sure that "Feed View" is switched on (via Tools, Options, Connect, Feeds, Settings) otherwise all you will see is the HTML file.

You can also use a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks all your chosen feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions.

Feed readers you could try include:

For PC users
NewsPoint

Feed Reader

For Mac users
NetNewsWireLite

Newsfire

Once you have installed a feed reader you can start adding feeds. Setting up a news feed differs from one feed reader (also called an "aggregator")  to another, but usually involves copying the URL of the feed (from the address bar on your browser) and pasting it into the reader.

The address of my feed is:

http://www.jkcook.net/rssfeed.xml

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Jonathan Cook News Archive,  last updated on Friday, 31 October 2008