Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is something you’ve likely heard mentioned in discussions about the web but may me confused about. Very simply, RSS is something which allows you to subscribe to a web site’s content. Instead of checking a site to determine if there’s something new, you can use RSS to have the new content automatically sent to you. Once you start using RSS, you’ll likely wonder how you did without it.
How do you get started? There are many different ways of using RSS, but I’ll share one of the simplest. Mail, the email program which comes with your Mac, is capable of receiving RSS feeds directly so it’s just a matter of setting up the feed. Here’s how you do it using Safari to browse to the page.
1. Find a web site that uses RSS. Safari makes it easy to check: a site using RSS will have this icon in the address bar.
2. Click on the RSS icon. If several options are shown, choose “RSS feed.” The site’s RSS page will load.
3. Highlight and copy the address of the feed page.
4. In Mail, click the plus sign, and choose “Add RSS Feeds”
5. Paste the feed address in the box which pops up and click “Add”
6. The RSS feed appears in your Mail sidebar, and as new content is added to the site, the updates appear just like new unread emails.
Posted on May 19th, 2009 by Joe Kallo
Filed under: Instructional links