There's some discussion as to what the acronym RSS actually stands for, but the majority plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'.
RSS feeds are just a special kind of web page, designed to be read by computers rather than people. It might help to think of them as the free, internet version of the old-fashioned ticker-tape news wire machines.
Using RSS allows you to see when sites from all over the internet have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and articles (or even audio files, photographs or video) in one place, as soon as they are published, without having to remember to visit each site every day.
RSS takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.
Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and many others, including the BBC, Guardian, New York Times and CNN provide it.
back to topIn general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like hotmail.
Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want to receive in your news reader, by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds. For example, if you would like the latest BBC Sport football stories, simply visit the football section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left-hand side.
If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Most sites that offer RSS feeds use a similar orange RSS button, but some may just have a normal weblink to the feed.
back to topBBC Worldwide is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
back to topSome browsers, including Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for RSS feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to RSS feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their websites.
BBC Worldwide is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
back to topTo subscribe to an RSS feed with Internet Explorer 7
After you have subscribed to an RSS feed, you can access it directly from the Feeds toolbar in the Favorites Center.
When you visit a webpage and you see an orange icon at the far right of the address bar it means that the page contains an RSS feed that you can subscribe to (if you are using an old version of the browser this icon may appear in the status bar in the bottom right).
You can add the feed by clicking the orange icon and subscribing to one. If there is more than one RSS feed, Firefox shows a list from which you can pick one.
The Add Live Bookmark dialogue box appears. A Live bookmark is similar to a standard folder you might create in your bookmarks list, but instead of containing manually collected bookmarks, it will contain live links from the RSS feed that are updated automatically.
You may prefer to add the Live bookmarks to the Bookmarks toolbar folder, normally shown under the navigation toolbar, so you can view recent content with just one mouse click.
back to topIf you run your own website, you can use RSS feeds to display the latest headlines from other sites on your site.
We encourage the use of Top Gear RSS feeds as part of a website, subject to our Terms and Conditions.
However, we do require that the proper format and attribution is used when BBC Worldwide content appears. The attribution text should read "Top Gear" or "From Top Gear" as appropriate. You may not use any BBC logo or other BBC trademark.
We reserve the right to prevent the distribution of Top Gear content. Please read our Terms and Conditions for further instructions.
BBC Worldwide does not accept any liability for its RSS feeds. Please see the Terms and Conditions for full details.
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