What Is RSS?

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What Is RSS?
What you need to know

You may have been seeing those little orange RSS or XML buttons around the Internet. If you were wondering what they are...

It's "the next big thing" -- you can use it to get newsfeeds from CNN or BBC, as well as just about anything else, including news on upcoming movies, DVD releases, your favorite musician's tour updates, etc.

Once you get started, it's like having your favorite parts of the Web come to you. No need to go out and check for updates all the time.

"RSS" means "Really Simple Syndication." What it means to you is that when you subscribe to a site that has an RSS feed, you can keep up-to-date without having to check the site every day or week.

How do you get started? Easy!

Download a free RSS Reader first. This is special software that reads the RSS feeds...

Windows -- FeedReader
http://www.feedreader.com/

Windows -- RssReader
http://www.rssreader.com/

Mac -- NetNewsWire
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

Once you're set up, here's all you have to do...

Right-click (control-click for Mac users) on any orange RSS button on a site, blog or news source that interests you. Start by right-clicking on the orange button below. Then...

copy and paste Select Copy Shortcut ("Copy Link to Clipboard" for Mac, "Copy Link Location" for Firefox browsers), and paste that URL into your RSS Reader.