Keeping informed with RSS Feeds

A great and simple way to keep informed with the latest news is using RSS feeds. You can use these to keep informed on;

• Latest news
• Weather forecasts
• Political updates
• Sports updates
• Currency exchanges
• New posts from your favourite blogs

Our RSS feed is available here.

What is an RSS feed?

RSS stands for really simple syndication. It works by pulling down simple text files of blogs, news or any RSS compatible feeds without the site’s formatting and is displayed in an organised list, more commonly referred to as a feed.

Why use an RSS feed?

If you have multiple websites that you visit regularly to get the latest content, you may be browsing every single site hourly/daily to check if there is a new article. Sometimes you can miss out on vital information and news if you forget. This can be a painstakingly time-consuming endeavour!

Instead of having to trawl through multiple sites, you can subscribe to these sites via RSS feeds. Using an RSS application (known as RSS aggregator or RSS reader) you can combine each of your favourite site’s new content into one feed.

RSS feeds significantly simplify the process of keeping you informed and updated on the freshest news of your choice.

How do I use an RSS reader?

Hundreds of thousands of sites are now RSS compatible. Once you have installed your RSS reader, you simply add a site to your RSS feed by clicking / tapping on the RSS icon, which typically looks like:

There are hundreds of RSS Reader applications out there and most of these are free and easy to learn.

You can download RSS readers for your desktop, browser or apps for your smartphone or tablet. These readers have a simple to use interface which regularly crawls the site’s you have subscribed to and downloads the latest content for your perusal. Some readers have the option to notify you when there is new information released.

Our favourite RSS readers

Most people these days are divided over between which smartphone/tablet operating system is the best, Android or iOS? And the Scott Shorter office is no different. Because not all readers are available on every operating system, we did a quick poll of the team and put together a list of our favourite free RSS readers for all OS’s:

• Flipboard
• Feedly
• Newsify
• Feedreader
• Chrome’s RSS Feed Reader plugin
• Digg (Android and iOS)

What sites can I subscribe to?

There’s an endless list of sites you can subscribe to, here’s a few of our team’s favourites:

Scott

• Scott Shorter – Subscribe to our RSS feed
• News.com.au
• Slashdot.org – Self-described as ‘news for nerds’
• IFL Science – All the latest news and developments in the scientific community

Monica

• This is Why I’m Broke – Quirky things to buy online
• Eventfinder.com.au – Australian events
• Stuff.co.nz – The latest New Zealand news

Lizzie

• BuzzFeed – All the most popular viral and social content on the web
• 27bslash6.com – Humourist David Thorne’s website
• Breakfast Confidential – Perth breakfast reviews

Happy RSS feeding!