RSS Explained

What is RSS?
In a nutshell, RSS, ("Really Simple Syndication"), is a way to get information from websites sent to you, instead of you visiting those websites to get updates. So it's basically a web feed.

When you subscribe to a website's RSS feed, it delivers the site's latest news directly to you. It's a great time saver, as you have information automatically sent to you instead of spending time visiting each site individually.

You can use an RSS feed to get the latest news, weather, updates on hobby sites, blogs (subscribe to our RSS feed on the right of the page!), and loads more besides.

So how does it work?
It's actually pretty simple, you need: an RSS reader, and a site generates an RSS feed!

An RSS reader is just a piece of software that lets you read RSS feeds (the same way you need Microsoft Word to read .doc files, or Microsoft EXCEL to read .xls files)
There are loads of free, good RSS readers out there. You can find a list of some of the best here and here. If you have a Google gmail account, you can use Google Reader

After that, you just subscribe to the website you're interested in! Nearly all news websites have RSS feeds; in fact most information websites on the web have RSS feeds that you can subscribe to. All you have to do is keep an eye out for the RSS symbol (above).
Some sites, like RTE, and the BBC have different RSS feeds for different topics, e.g. news, sport, technology, etc.

What happens is the website sends the feed to your reader. All you have to do is scan the headlines, and if you see an article that you're interested in, you can click the link to bring you directly to the information on the website.

Very easy, and a great time saver!