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RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a way to quickly find out new information on the internet, without having to look through irrelevant pages full of slow loading graphics and advertisements. This is done by the publishing of short headlines and a summary of the item. The user can then decide from that information whether to click on the link and read the full article, or bypass it.

These summaries (RSS files) are picked up and read by simplified web browsers known as RSS Readers. RSS is used to by websites to announce their own news and site updates, or to distribute and gather content from sources across the Web, including online newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

RSS files are now provided by many Australian Government websites as well as leading news services such as the ABC, Reuters, AAP, and CNN.

RSS can save you time by bringing to your desktop lists of new headlines from your favourite websites. When one of the feeds you subscribe to is updated, you will receive an alert on your desktop. Most usefully, the headlines come with abstracts and links to the full articles so you can decide whether or not the item is of interest or relevant before you read the full article.

Getting started

To use RSS, you need to install a small program called an RSS reader (also known as an RSS aggregator).

There are many RSS feed readers available and some of them are available as a free download. You will find a list of RSS feed readers at RSS Info or DMOZ Open Directory Project. Choose one that suits your computer system and has the features you think you will require.

Once you have installed your RSS reader, you can configure it to alert you of new updates as they occur, or at regular intervals (eg, hourly, daily). Most RSS readers will come with pre-installed feeds which you might choose to remove when you are installing the program or at a later date. You can delete and add feeds at any time.

You need to tell your RSS reader which online resources it should report on. To find which websites have enabled RSS, you can visit your favourite websites and look for an RSS link or XML symbol such as these

Most RSS readers have an "Add New Feed" function. To add an RSS feed, you need to paste the URL of the feed into your feed reader. One way to do this is to right click on the orange RSS icon and select "copy shortcut" or "copy link location" and paste it into the appropriate place in your RSS reader. You can find the URLs of all the feeds available on this website at www.aph.gov.au/rss.htm.

Your reader will take the raw .xml file that the RSS feed is written in and display it in a form that makes sense. For example, the Parliamentary Library's Publication RSS feed looks like this when displayed.