RSS in Plain English
- What is RSS?
RSS is a technology that allows websites to deliver the latest articles and newest content directly to you, without having to constantly visit a Web site to see what's new. Watch the video below for an easy description of how to use RSS and subscribe to your favorite news sites and blogs ... like Career College Central ... and be notified of updates.
- What is RSS? Let's continue ...
RSS is a technology that allows websites to deliver the latest articles and newest content directly to you, without having to constantly visit a Web site to see what's new. RSS feeds contain headlines and hyperlinks to longer articles or Web pages. CareerCollegeCentral.com's feeds are free of charge. All you need is a way to view them (we'll get to that in a minute).
- Why do I see weird code in my browser window whenever I click on an RSS link?
RSS relies on a "feed reader" to display information in a friendly way. Luckily, several easy-to-use solutions are available to you. These feed readers and news aggregators allow you to easily view news and blogs in a dedicated program, on a web site, in your email program or directly through your browser, without even going to a website.
- OK, so what do I need?
There are several ways to view RSS feeds. Just pick which one suits you:
Feed reader programs:
These are standalone programs that bring the contents of websites directly to you. Once you've subscribed to the feed, the program will display the information. Dozens of different programs allow you to view RSS feeds, but some common ones are Google Reader, BlogLines, NewsGator, and for Mac users - NetNewsWire. Net News Wire actually downloads the RSS feeds (news stories) to your computer so you can view them offline.
Online feed reader sites:
Online feed readers such as Google Reader and BlogLines don't require you to install any software. You can view the latest updates to your favorite sites all in one place.
Email feed readers:
Some feed readers, such as intraVnews allow you to view the RSS feed in an email program such as Microsoft Outlook.
Browser feed readers:
Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support RSS feeds, but Firefox's "Live Bookmarks" feature allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and view updates right in your bookmarks, with nothing more than a single click.

Some feed readers, such as NewsGator, allow multiple ways to view your RSS subscriptions.
- So how do I subscribe to these RSS feeds?
Some feed readers simplify the subscription process to nothing more than a button click, but one sure-fire way to subscribe is to click the rss button, then cut and paste the resulting URL into the appropriate place in your feed reader.
That's it!
- Google lists a number of news aggregators, none of which are associated with CareerCollegeCentral.com, that you can download and test in this
List of News Aggregators.