RSS
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a technology used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of new content on their favourite Websites. It is alternatively referred to as a feed or news-feed and subscribing to a feed means using RSS to remain updated with changes to a Website's content.
How to Use RSS
First you will need a RSS Reader. Perhaps the best place to start is with Google Reader, which is free and fairly easy to use.
If you don't already have a Google account, open an account at Google Accounts (new window).
After creating your account, find and click the Reader icon on your Google Accounts home page.
The Google Reader Icon
On your reader page, click the Add a subscription button at the top-left of the page.
The 'Add a subscription' button in Google Reader
Click the 'Add a subscription' button and enter the URL of the feed.
The easiest way to obtain the URL of a feed is to visit the Website content you want to subscribe to and click the RSS / Subscription link. This will take you to a new page and show you the RSS feed. Copy the URL from the address bar, paste it into the textbox on your Google Reader page, and click 'Add'.
For example, if you click this link it will open up my blog RSS feed in a new window. If you then copy the URL from the address bar (the URL is http://www.birdimages.co.uk/blog/rss/1/), paste it into the Google Reader page subscription textbox, and click the 'Add' button, you will then be subscribed to my blog RSS feed.
Adding a subscription to the birdimages.co.uk blog
Follow this link to subscribe to my latest images feed also (new window).
Now, each time you visit your Google Reader, you will see my latest content.
The Reader works a little like email, in that any unread entries will be marked in bold font. If you click on the heading of an item and read the content, the item will be marked as read (normal font).
Full Feed or Excerpt?
A RSS feed can be either 'full' or a snippet / excerpt. With a full feed you will see all the content from the page or blog post in your reader. If it is an excerpt you will need to follow the link in the feed to view the full content on the Website you're subscribed to.
My blog feed is a full feed, so you can see all the content in your Reader.
My image feeds are excerpt feeds, in that they show thumbnails rather than full-size images. This is done because there might be a lot of images and they might be large and therefore might slow down your Reader.
If the above seems a little too complicated for you, the alternative is to subscribe by email.