Web Feed Guide

Ever visited a page on the internet and come across this icon or this one or maybe ? Perhaps wondered what these icons meant but never bothered to click and find out why they were there? Thought that you would check on the icons later?

Welcome to Web Feed aka Web Syndication aka News Aggregation or simply subscription.

1) Are there a collection of webpages (Blogs, News, Howstuffworks etc.) you regularly visit?
2) Do you wish to be updated if there was an update to the content of any of these webpages?
3) Would you like to preview the new content in your regular website before you decide if you actually want to check out the page and read the content?
4) Would you like to see updates to all your frequent websites in a single location?

Web feed is for you if your answers to the questions above are a YES. Web feeds provides a method for you to aggregate information from your preferred websites in a single location. To make this happen there are two requirements:

1) The website you want the information from should provide a feed service. Look for any of the above logos or keywords like ATOM, RSS, FEED, XML, Syndicate etc. you can click on. Most popular websites and blogs have this option. Scroll to the bottom of this page to find the option to subscribe to the feed from WORD FROM THE WEB. Clicking on this icon or link should bring up the default Feed reading software installed in the system to configure it to read content from this website.

2) You need a Feed reading Software which collects information from websites of your choice. Some of the popular feed reading services are:

SharpReader
NewsGator
RssBandit
Feedreader

Opera, IE7 and Firefox web browsers have feed reading service integrated into them. Another alternative is Google Desktop's Web Clips gadget. This is my preferred feed reading service as its already there on my desktop.

Download and install Google Desktop and find the Web Clips gadget already present in the Desktop Toolbar. Click on the down pointing arrow to the right of Web Clips title and select options. Current web clips lists the currently subscribed feeds from which you can add or remove entries. To get feeds from a new website, locate the RSS or ATOM or XML or the relevent feed keyword with a link. Right click on this link or icon and choose to copy the link address or the shortcut. Paste it into the Add box and click on the Add button in the options. You should now be subscribed to the web page from which you will get updates.


Some of my subscriptions:

1) Dilbert Blog: Scott Adams Blog on events in the world

2) Ctrl+Alt+Del: A geek comic

3) DailyTech: Daily dose of technology

4) Reddit: Social News network

5) Slashdot: Tech news

6) the INQUIRER: News, Reviews, Facts and Friction

7) XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.