NOTE: This is part 5 of a 12-part CONTENTIOUS tutorial, What Are Webfeeds (RSS), and Why Should You Care? (Full table of contents available on that main page.)
When you subscribe to a webfeed (often called an RSS feed), you enter the online address (URL) of that webfeed into your feed reader software or service. That way, your feed reader knows where to look in order to get that webfeed’s latest updates.
Currently, the process of subscribing to a webfeed is not quite as simple and straightforward as visiting a Web site – although I expect this situation will improve with time. But don’t worry, while it’s a bit awkward it is not difficult.
Here’s what you do…
- Find the site’s webfeed. The easiest way to find this is to look on a site for a small, cryptic button (usually orange or blue) that says something like “XML” or “RSS.” These buttons are becoming ubiquitous on many Web sites, although they usually aren’t explained. Or there may just be a text-based link that says “feed.”
If you see a link or button like that, click on it. (More options in case you can’t easily find a site’s webfeed.)
- Get that webfeed’s URL. The next thing you’ll probably see will be an ugly Web page filled with code. That’s the webfeed – or at least, that’s how a webfeed looks when viewed through a Web browser, which is obviously not the intended environment for reading feeds!
Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong, and you don’t have to understand that code. All you have to do is copy the address (URL) of that Web page into memory on your computer.
- Add it to your feed reader. Tell your feed reader that you wish to add a new webfeed. It will ask you for the address of that feed. For that, simply paste in the URL you copied from the Web in the previous step. Your feed reader will then probably check briefly to verify that there is indeed a webfeed at that location, and then add it to your list of webfeed subscriptions.
That’s all. If it sounds complicated, try it once to see how easy it really is.
Some feed reader programs and services, including Bloglines, simplify this process with one-click or click-and-drag subscribing. In the future, I expect (or at least hope) that this kind of feature will become commonplace in feed readers.
I’ve seen several webfeed novices perplexed and frustrated when they encounter the ugly webfeed code, and I can understand that negative reaction. Users shouldn’t have to trip over technology like that. It’s clumsy and offputting.
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds
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