Using a Web Based RSS Reader - Look For the Orange Icon

Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, is easy to use in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7. RSS offers a straightforward way to subscribe to Web content and information from a wide variety of sources, including news and sports from local and national newspapers, business news, local weather conditions and forecasts. You may have heard of RSS or seen the orange RSS icon on your favorite web site and yet to get involved. Here's your chance!

First, if you're new to RSS, read the article entitled Your Home Office and RSS - What You Need to Know for some tips on setting up IE 7 to read RSS feeds. Once set up, note that Internet Explorer (and Firefox) will indicate if the web site you're browsing has an RSS feed by displaying a clickable orange RSS icon in the address bar. To subscribe to that site's feed in your browser, click the RSS icon. [See Image 1] 

But what if you use several computers during the day? If that's the case you may want to try a web based RSS reader instead of setting up each computer's copy of IE with your favorite feeds. Web based RSS readers are web sites that collect or aggregate your RSS feeds. The best web based RSS readers will also suggest new feeds based on your current selections, and allow you to mark and share articles for yourself and other users. One big advantage of the web based RSS reader is that the feed collection happens on the provider's servers, even when you are not online. IE and Firefox download RSS feeds to your computer when the browser is open and you are online. This can take time and consume your bandwidth when you start your RSS reading session, though, so weigh the pros and cons.
 
Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail both include RSS readers too, so if you use one of these systems, you just need to add some RSS subscriptions. It's easier to add RSS feeds if you copy the RSS link from your web browser to a text editor like Notepad. [See Image 2] [ See Image 3]

Of course, there's a problem with most web based RSS readers - if you do not have a connection to the Internet, you can't read your RSS feeds. There are hybrid and combined RSS readers that support an application on your computer and a web based RSS reader, though, and this combines the best aspects of both approaches, by syncing your RSS feeds, favorites, notes and other data between your hard drive and the web site.  For Windows users, one popular combination is FeedDemon and its online version, NewsGator.