An Easy Introduction to Web Feeds

Updated December 2, 2023

This article will help beginners understand a few “feed” essentials: what they are, how they work, and how to use them..

So you are a little new to the Web. As you surf around, you keep noticing these little orange squares and multicolored boxes placed next to phrases such as these:

Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via XML
Subscribe via Atom
Subscribe via Feedburner
Subscribe to My Feed
Subscribe to Main Content
Subscribe to Comments

..and so on. Although these invitations to “subscribe” come in many flavors, they are all basically doing the same thing: enabling visitors to receive information from the site without having to manually visit the site itself. By subscribing to your favorite sites, you can stay current with updated content delivered to the “feed reader” of your choice.

There are many feed readers freely available around the Web. In many cases, you can even have feed subscriptions delivered directly to your email account. We’ll talk more about different types of feed readers here in a bit. For now, let’s examine a few different types of feeds and how they might be used.

These days, it is very common for a site or blog to deliver a feed of their content. Providing feeds enables sites to distribute information far beyond the scope of their website. Using feeds, content producers may transmit many different types of content, including:

news updates
text articles
blog posts
audio content
video clips
headlines
weather
anything

Just about any type of multimedia content currently available on the web may easily and efficiently be distributed using feeds. Using feeds, content producers are able to share their content with a wide variety of readers and applications, including:

news aggregators
online feed readers
offline/desktop feed readers
email accounts
web portals
aggregation sites
feed services
widgets/gadgets
mobile devices
mini-applications
just about anywhere

As you can imagine, feeds have changed — and continue to change — the nature of the Web. By subscribing to your favorite sites, staying current is fast easy. In fact, many people subscribe to many different types of information, including:

stock market
weather reports
driving conditions
department store sales
global/regional news
software updates
hardware updates
product updates
lectures/sermons
just about anything

As you can see, subscribing to feeds enables you to funnel potentially large quantities of key information into a streamlined application such as an online feed reader or email inbox. This process is referred to as “feed aggregation” and ultimately enables you to review vast quantities of content in a brief period of time. No more trying to remember which information is needed from where and when. No more manually checking every site on your list. Simply subscribe to your favorite sites and blogs and read the automatically aggregated information at your leisure.

Feeds are becoming more popular every day. Just about everyone provides them, including:

Major news corporations: CNN, Fox, MSNBC, BBC, ABC, etc.
Online organizations: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Amazon, CNET, etc.
Retail stores and services: GAP, Sony, Apple, Wal-Mart, etc.
Gazillions of bloggers, podcasters (audio content), & video bloggers
Online services such as Google’s News Search or Apple’s iTunes
As I said, just about everyone!

To subscribe to feeds, you will need to choose a feed-reading application, or “feed aggregator”. Depending on your particular computer setup (home, remote, network, mobile, etc.), you should have access to many compatible varieties of readers from which to choose. Most are free, while others charge a nominal fee or require user registration to download. While checking out the various aggregators, you will see that they vary substantially in terms of usability and functionality. Some readers are bare-bones applications that require a bit of time to configure, while others come fully loaded with tons of pre-configured features and a million pre-subscribed feeds to launch you into action.

If the idea of searching for the perfect feed reader scares the pajamas off you, don’t fret. Here is a hand-picked assortment of popular choices to get you started:

Inoreader (free service)
Netvibes (free service)
My Yahoo! (free service)
RSS Feed Reader (free Chrome addon)
Feedbro (free Firefox addon)
iTunes (free macOS app)

..and that is just the tip of the iceberg — there are many excellent feed readers from which to choose. Personally, I have joined the many users completely satisfied with Google Reader. Here are the reasons that I like Inoreader as my aggregator of choice:

Online service = accessible anywhere: home, office, remote, mobile
Lightning fast = blaze through hundreds of feeds quickly and easily
Easy organization = easily create categories and organize your feeds
Feed display count = show number of unread feeds for each category
Easy to save feeds = “star” any feed to save it for later
Searchable feeds = search through all of your feeds for key content
Many more awesome features = there are too many great features to discuss them all here!

Even if Inoreader isn’t your thing, the previous list may serve as a guide to help you know what features and functionality to look for in a good reader. Don’t worry too much about finding the perfect reader. The goal is to get started with feeds — you can always change readers later!

Once you have actualized a feed reader and familiarized yourself with its basic operation, you are ready to begin adding your favorite feeds to the menu. Although the specific process for doing this will vary according to your specific aggregator, in general, the subscribing to a feed involves a predictable sequence of events:

Go to your favorite site and click on the “Subscribe to My Feed” (or whatever) link.
Copy the feed URL (as displayed in the browser’s address bar) and add it to your reader.
Done! Your reader should refresh itself with current items from your new subscription.

And that’s all there is to it, really. It really is easy — you will be a pro after adding your first feed! Some sites make it even easier to sign up for a feed subscription by offering one-click feed services for many types of feed readers. For example, on certain sites, you will find links, icons or buttons that say things like:

Subscribe via Newsgator
Subscribe via Bloglines
Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to Yo Mama

..or something along those lines. For example, when are logged into your Google Reader account and encounter one of these “one-click” feed-subscription links, simply click the link to subscribe to the feed. It just doesn’t get much easier. On the other hand, if the feed subscription link simply says something like, “Subscribe to main content,” then proceed as before and copy/paste the link address into the “Add Feed” portion of your feed reader. Note that you shouldn’t need to worry about which format to choose for the feed. For example, if a site offers their feed in RSS 2.0, Atom, and plain XML formats, simply select whichever you prefer. Most feed readers available today are well-equipped to handle any feed format you can throw at them!

FYI:
Just for the record, here are some “loose” definitions for several common feed acronyms and terms:

RSS = It depends on who you ask: RSS stands for either Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, and/or Rockdale, Sandow, and Southern (Railroad). RSS is standardized XML code that is formatted for multi-platform distribution of textual information. More info »
Atom = The collaborative association of “Atom Syndication Format” (an XML-based feed format) with the Atom Publishing Protocol (an HTTP-based resource management protocol, also known as AtomPub or APP).
XML = a multipurpose code specification used to format markup languages.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Security Specialist. WordPress Buff.