What is a RSS Feed?

RSS feeds are designed to make it easy to find out when a web site has something new to say, whether it's news, a blog or a weather feed. They are web page that are designed to a standard that can be read by computer software. The computer software, often known as a feed reader, will then tell you when there is something new to read on a web site. So instead of visiting 50 web site to find out whether they have add anything new for you to read, you only have to read the articles from the web sites that have said they have updated something.

Here's an example of NetNewsWire showing the latest weather for London, England.

Depending on who you talk to RSS can stand for different things, but the most common definition is Really Simple Syndication. But it doesn't really matter what RSS stands for, if you see RSS or Feed or the orange logo you can subscribe to the feed and starting being told when the web site has been updated.

Getting Started

You'll need to start by either downloading some feed reader software to run on your computer. Alternatively you will need to sign-up with a web site. Which one you choose is down to personal preference. If you read email using on a web site you'll probably be more comfortable with using a browser for reading RSS feeds. And, if you use e-mail software such as Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird you might prefer to download some software to use as your news reader. But, don't worry most of the services or software is either free or you can trial it for a 30 days to find out more.

Subscribing to a Weather Feed

On each of the weather pages on rssWeather.com you'll see an orange logo like the one shown to the left. If you click on the RSS feed logo it will either subscribe you directly or take you to a page where you can choose how you want to subscribe.