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RSS: Real Simple News feeds

By Julian Sher

It’s the newest trend in delivering news on the web -- and it promises you instant news from the sources you want, when you want it.

It’s called RSS, for Real Simple Syndication. You may have noticed some major media news sites, such as the New York Times, the BBC or Le Monde Diplomatique, are starting to display on their pages a distinctive small orange box with the letters XML.

RSS is essentially a list of headlines encoded in such a way that it can be used by another program or website. XML is the coding language -- just like HTML is the language used to write web pages -- that allows any media organization, or anybody else for that matter (governments, bloggers, even JournalismNet) to push or deliver a stream of news and information to anyone who wants it.

Think of it as your own private wire service - only you get to choose the sources and topics.

                                    DOWNLOAD RSS SOFTWARE

There are two ways to read RSS news feeds -- with downloaded software or on a web page.

The most convenient way is through software that you install and run as a newsreader on your computer. The advantage is that you have the feeds permanently on your computer. You can program the newsreader to run automatically and it goes out and downloads the latest headlines from the news sources you have selected.

The disadvantage, of course, is that you have to know how to download and install something from the web (though it’s not harder than any other download and the programs pretty much install themselves.)

All the programs are basically the same. An icon sits on your desktop taskbar; click on it, a box opens up. On the left is the list of news feeds they have already programmed in. You can delete some and add others (see below for where to find them). Some of the programs can also be configured to run inside your email service, such as Outlook.

Feedreader ( at www.feedreader.com) is one of the simplest of the new breed of news readers to use. It's free and easy to use.

Two other decent programs are NewzCrawler  at www.newzcrawler.com offers both a free and a pay-for version.

Headlineviewer (at www.headlineviewer.com) uses Moreover's vast world news feeds (mentioned in more detail below). It has a vast array of world and general news, but you can't add your own news feeds.

Finally,  Pluck (at www.pluck.com) offers more than just a news feed. It attaches to your web browser and also will “pluck” web searches for you.

RSS WEB PAGES

The second way to read RSS news feeds is through web pages that allow you to read RSS feeds. The advantage is that there is no software to download and install. Like getting your Yahoo or Hotmail, you simply set up an account, put in your password and read the news.

In fact, Yahoo has one of the best (and free) RSS programs. Look for the ‘My Yahoo’ logo on the main Yahoo page or go to my.yahoo.com and sign up. ). Many news pages offer a single click button (“Add to My Yahoo” that allows you to instantly install the feed onto your Yahoo page. 

Yahoo has a good help guide at my.yahoo.com/s/rss-faq.html.

Another excellent web page is Newsgator (at www.newsgator.com) which has a decent free and a superb pay-for service.

                                                FINDING RSS WEB PAGES

Okay, once you have downloaded a reader or signed up for a web page service, how do you go about finding RSS news feeds?  There is still not a single, good systematic way to find news feeds.  Even major news sites don’t always make it easy, often hiding their pages of news feeds with obscure addresses.

On any web page, you can always look for the distinctive XML logo:

Another easy trick is simply to Google the name of your favourite news source and add RSS: for example “new york times rss” will find you the impressive list of free news feeds offered by that paper at http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/.

The best directory of RSS feeds so far is found at NewsisFree.com.  You can search by letter of the name of the publication at http://www.newsisfree.com/sources/byname/ or by news category at http://www.newsisfree.com/sources/bycat/

And, finally, one of the most extensive news lists on the web is at Moreover.com.  It lists hundreds of news feeds provided by Moreover - from almost every country and region in the world and covering most sectors of industry, commerce and news.

You will find all the links listed above and many other RSS sources on JNet’s RSS page at www.journalismnet.com/rss.  JNet also offers its own RSS news feed you can subscribe to for free -- a  Pick of the Week with the best new resources for journalists on the web.

____________________________________________________________________

Julian Sher, the creator and webmaster of Journalism Net (www.journalismnet.com), does Internet training in newsrooms around the world. He can be reached by email at jsher@journalismnet.com.  This article and many other columns from “Media” magazine are available online with hot links on the JournalismNet Tips page at www.journalismnet.com/tips

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