The technology of RSS [Real Simple Syndication] allows Internet users to subscribe to Web sites that have provided RSS feeds; these are typically sites that change or add content regularly.

What does that mean?

If a Web site offers a RSS feed, you can be notified when there is a change on that site. Readers can see what's new on many different Web sites without having to constantly visit each of them. RSS feeds contain headlines and hyperlinks to longer articles or Web pages.

One of the original uses for RSS was syndication. This means that you could publish content from another Web site on your own site for others to read.

RSS feeds are difficult to read without an aggregator or feed reader of some sort - see: feeds.feedburner.com/jenkinsblog.

What is a Feed Reader/Aggregator?

A RSS Aggregator/Feed Reader allows you to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and read them all in one place. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

How do I get a Feed Reader/Aggregator?

Different Feed Readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to take this into account when you make your choice. Use our RSS Feed Reader Research Links to help you make your decision.

Many free and commercial news aggregators are available for download. For example, Bloglines lets you organize your subscriptions and keep track of them all in one easy-to-access place, meaning you can access it from any computer with an internet connection.

Once you have chosen a Feed Reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, you can visit our list of RSS Feeds Available @Jenkins and click on to get the URL and putting it into your Feed Reader or click on to subscribe to the feed via Bloglines.

Some browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 8, Opera and Safari RSS, have functionality which automatically pick up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their Web sites.

Additional resources about RSS

To learn more about RSS and how to subscribe, try these resources from the Wikipedia.

• List of RSS readers / aggregators
• Background information about RSS