How to Read RSS Feeds

If you've ever clicked on the little orange RSS or XML buttons on a website you may have thought there was something wrong with the page because what you'll see is a load of code that looks a bit like html. The problem is that RSS feeds can't be read properly by web browsers so they just display the source code.

So how do people view RSS feeds?

As part of another website

As you can see from this website rss feeds can be displayed within a web page. Many web surfers won't even realize that what they are looking at is an RSS feed because it looks like part of the pages content or maybe an advert.

As more & more webmasters realize the benefits of syndicating the content of other websites into their pages it is becoming increasingly common to see RSS feeds displayed in this way.

This is very, very important because it means that your RSS feed can be seen by anyone, they don't even need to know what RSS is!

RSS Aggregators

An RSS aggregator (also known as a news aggregator or news reader) is a piece of software which reads RSS feeds. They are usually stand-alone programs but may also be integrated into another program such as email software.

An RSS aggregator allows you to view any number of feeds you have subscribed to and automatically checks each feed for new content. This means that updates are delivered to you without even opening your web browser!

RSS aggregators are the traditional way of reading RSS feeds but they're not just used by people with a lot of technical knowledge, they are becoming increasingly popular with your average web user who wants to keep track of new content on many websites.

Online RSS Aggregators

Technically anything that combines 2 or more RSS feeds is an RSS aggregator, so this website is an RSS aggregator as is any other website that displays multiple RSS feeds. In this case it is the webmaster who determines which RSS feeds to display.

There are however a number of websites which allow you to view RSS feeds of your choice.

RSS feeds in Web Browsers

Whilst web browsers don't display the RSS feed if you click on the RSS button, some web browsers have an RSS aggregator function integrated into them. The most important of these is Firefox.

Firefox hasn't been around for long but it's already the second most used web browser. Firefox allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed as a 'Live Bookmark'. Live bookmarks appear alongside ordinary bookmarks (bookmark is the Firefox equivalent of Internet Explorers Favorites) the difference is that when you hold your mouse over the bookmark title a list of headlines from the RSS feed are displayed.

It is rumored that the next version of Internet Explorer will have a similar function.

In addition to the built-in RSS feed reading functions of web browsers like Firefox there are RSS reader plug-ins available for most web browsers.

RSS Feed Guide provides you with all the resources you need to use RSS Feeds to your advantage. With easy to follow tutorials and articles RSS Feed Guide will show you how to create RSS Feeds, display RSS Feeds and how to use RSS Feeds to increase your traffic, profits and search engine rankings.

To learn more of the benefits of RSS Feed Guide visit the RSS Feed Guide description page or if you're ready to start using RSS Feeds signup now to gain access to the resources of RSS Feed Guide.

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