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RSS Feeds and You

Old Blog Import

What is an RSS feed? That link has a lot of info, but the short answer is that it is simply a way of formating content so that it can easily be used by other websites, as well as specialized software. For instance, did you ever visit one web site and see a list of recent headlines from other websites? That was an RSS feed!

But what is even more amazing is that you can download and install free software that will let you view such lists on your own computer!

And depending on how people have set up their site, you might even be able to read the article itself from within the RSS feed — like you can with mine! This is great because you don’t need to visit the web site to find out when it has been updated — the software checks regularly and lets you know which new articles have appeared which you have not read yet!

If you have a computer running Mac OS X you can use the wonderful NetNewsWire Lite, and if you use M$ Windoze you can use the free Feedreader software.

But once you have the software, what sites can you visit with it? A lot of sites will have a link that says either syndicate this,” or RSS,” or maybe even XML — which are all links that you can enter into the software. But some sites don’t support RSS feeds, so you need to find some way around that. One solution is to pay money for the premium service offered by Newsisfree.com. That will get you the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, and a host of other sites. There are also some services, like Blogmatrix.com that will create a crude RSS feed for sites that don’t have them.

To save you some work, I’ve listed all the news feeds I read below. The title links to the web site, and the link below is for either the RSS feed, or, if it is a Newsisfree.com premium service, a link to Newsisfree.com where you can sign up for a 30 day free trial if you like. The service is $20 a year which seems quite worth it for me.

Here are the list of sites I have right now in NetNewsWire:

Daypop Top News Stories

RSS Feed

Alternative

Common Dreams NewsCenter — Progressive NewsWire

News is Free Premium

AlterNet

RSS Feed

Blogs

Cursor.org

News is Free Premium

TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime

RSS Feed

TAPPED

RSS Feed

Eschaton

RSS Feed

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow

RSS Feed

Daily Kos

RSS Feed

No War Blog

RSS Feed

CalPundit

News is Free Premium

Kerim’s News Weblog

RSS Feed

Alas, a Blog

RSS Feed

Warincontext.org

BlogMatrix.com RSS Feed

Body and Soul

BlogMatrix.com RSS Feed

International News

Guardian Unlimited

News is Free Premium

New York Times: International News

News is Free Premium

BBC News | WORLD

RSS Feed

Washington Post: World News

News is Free Premium

Financial Times: World

News is Free Premium

Computer News

MacInTouch

RSS Feed

TidBITS

RSS Feed

FrostyPlace.com

RSS Feed

Boing Boing

RSS Feed

Slashdot

RSS Feed

macscripter.net news

RSS Feed

Mac OS X Hints

RSS Feed

MacUpdate — Mac OS X

RSS Feed

O’Reilly MacDevCenter.com

RSS Feed

Think Secret

RSS Feed

Taipei Times

The Taipei Times

News is Free Premium

The Taipei Times: Editorials

News is Free Premium

The Taipei Times: Taiwan

News is Free Premium

New York Times

New York Times: Art

News is Free Premium

New York Times: Books

News is Free Premium

New York Times: Politics

News is Free Premium

New York Times: Technology

News is Free Premium

New York Times: Science

News is Free Premium

New York Times: Opinion

News is Free Premium

New York Times: National

News is Free Premium

Online Journals

New York Review of Books

News is Free Premium

Salon News

News is Free Premium

Salon: Arts & Entertainment

News is Free Premium

Salon: Comics

News is Free Premium

Salon: Tech & Business

News is Free Premium

Salon: Iraq War

News is Free Premium

American Prospect

News is Free Premium

Foreign Affairs: Peace & Conflict

News is Free Premium

Politics

Howard Dean 2004 Call to Action Weblog

RSS Feed

Gary Hart News Blog

RSS Feed

Friend’s Blogs

Scott Sommers’ Taiwan Weblog

RSS Feed

Europa Internet Web Log

RSS Feed

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