What is RSS?
Friday 6 October 2006
RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and allows you to get the latest updates from need2know on your computer or website.
Using our RSS feed is an easy way of staying up to date with need2know.
How do I use RSS feeds?
To start using RSS, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. An RSS reader is a piece of software or a website that checks feeds and lets you know when new articles have been added to them.
There are many different types of reader. Some are accessed using a web browser, whereas others are applications that you download to your computer. The advantage of a browser-based news reader is that it lets you catch up on your RSS feeds from any computer – not just your own. The most popular web based readers are often free to use and include Bloglines, Newshutch, My Yahoo, Google Reader and Windows live.
Downloadable applications store your feeds on your own computer, working in a similar way to email programs such as Outlook. Newz Crawler, Feed Demon and Awasu (free) are all good examples.
Newer versions of some browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 and Safari (Mac only) also have RSS newsreaders contained into their web browser windows.
Once you have decided on your RSS reader, simple paste the following URL into it: http://www.need2know.co.uk/rss.cfm
Displaying the need2know RSS feed on my own website
Some of you may already have your own websites or blogs. If you do, need2know now has two easy ways for you to automatically pull the latest stories from the site and display on your blog or web page.
Here's how to do it:
- Decide whether you'd prefer a Javascript or iFrame based version of the newsfeed.
- Copy the correct code from the text area below.
- Paste this into the source code of the page you want to display the feed.
- If you want, you can also use CSS to style the RSS feed so it matches the overall appearance of your page.
