RSS news feeds keep you up-to-date as soon as new content is added to a website. You can view headlines with descriptions of the new content in the news feed itself without visiting the website sending out the news feed.
How do I get started with feeds?
Generally, there are three steps in getting started:
- Setup a feed reader
- Find feeds you are interested in
- Subscribe to the feed
Feed readers
A feed reader is software through which you read a feed. The feed reader will check your chosen feeds to show new content added. There are lots of feed readers to choose from (many good readers are available for free) and fall into two types:
- Web-based news readers access through a browser. Your feeds are stored on the web so you can view them from any computer.
- Applications installed on your computer. Feeds are downloaded and stored on your computer, similar to email.
Find feeds of interest
When you browse websites, available feeds are usually highlighted by an orange feed button:
All of our feeds are listed on Observatory news feeds.
Some web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari and Opera, make finding feeds much easier. When you visit a page, the browser automatically checks to see if a feed is available. If so, an orange feed button is displayed in the browser address bar:
Subscribe to the feed
Clicking on the orange feed button allows you to subscribe to the feed. Depending on the feed reader you are using, you may be prompted to choose what reader you wish to use to view the feed. Alternatively, you can copy the feed URL from the website and paste in your feed reader.
Where can I get a news reader?
There are lots of free news readers available. Here is a selection of feed readers:
Windows
Mac OS X
Web-based feed readers
How do I personalise my feeds?
As well as the standard feeds of new items on this site, such as events and publications, you can save your own search query as a feed. For example, you might want a feed of any new content added to the site containing the keyword 'Walsall'.
Perform a search of this site using the keyword 'Walsall'. On the search results page, you can save this search as a feed.
More details on customising your own feed of search results are available in the forum.