RSS - the basics
It's the perennial question - how do you keep up to date with web based information? You don't want to keep revisiting your favourite sites every day to see if they've added new articles, audio files or documents.
Help is at hand in the form of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are special web pages that are read by computers. Many internet sites - including the ICO's - offer RSS, and its popularity is growing all the time.
How to use RSS
Before you can use RSS, you'll need a news reader. This software checks your chosen RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles or files that have been added.
You have a choice of news reader. Some are browser based and allow you to catch up with your RSS feeds from any computer. Downloadable readers are designed for your main computer and allow you to store your feeds in the same way as you download your emails.
Subscribing to content
Once you've chosen your news reader, you simply subscribe to the RSS feeds of your choice. These are easily identified by an orange RSS button. Click on the button, drag (or cut and paste) the URL of the feed to your news reader and you're ready to go.
Some browsers automatically check for RSS feeds when you visit a site and display a special icon when they find one.
The most popular news readers
You can chose from a wide range of news readers and new versions are being developed all the time. Each operating system has its own readers, so chose one that works with your computer.
ICO RSS feeds
We have three RSS feeds on this site: