An Introduction to RSS

RSS is an incredibly useful tool.  It allows you to pick and choose the information that interests you most and displays it neatly and conveniently as and when you need it. 

We have created five EFL RSS feeds for your convenience to keep you up-to-date with the developments both within energiseforlife.com as well as in the world of health and nutrition. 

Detailed below is an outline of what RSS is and how to get started.

What is RSS?

RSS (stands for really simple syndication) is a communication tool being adopted by millions of websites and individuals as a way to send and receive highly targeted and selected news articles, research, stories, updates and other general messages and communications.

Put most simply, RSS is a basic method for receiving up-to-the-minute updates from the sources that interest you most.

For instance, if you were a sports fan, you could opt to receive the latest sports headlines from a website such as bbc.co.uk or telegraph.co.uk delivered directly to your computer.

Not all sites are currently using RSS as a way of improving their visitors experience, however, many sites are now starting to realize the convenience and benefits it can offer including Yahoo!, the New York Times, CNN and MSN.

How do I use RSS feeds?

In order to be able to view RSS feeds you need a tool knows as a news reader. There are hundreds of news readers available on the Internet and many of them are free to use. The two different types that exist are:

• news readers that you can download and run on your desktop as an application;
  
• news readers that are accessed through a browser, popularized on sites such as myYahoo!  and myMSN although Google are also now offering a news reader on the ‘my homepage’ section of their site.

The news reader then allows you to subscribe to the news feeds that interest you. For example, if you would like to receive updates on the latest Energise for Life special offers and discounts, simply click on the RSS logo, and copy and paste the address of the page into the relevant field of your reader.

The reader will then show the news that originates from this feed as and when it happens!

Where can I find a news reader?

As mentioned, there are many different news readers available. Here are some examples:

Browser-Based

MyYahoo! (http://uk.my.yahoo.com/) – simply sign up for a MyYahoo! Account, click the choose content tab and then add the RSS Headlines.

This will then promt you to add the address of your desired RSS feed(s). For the Energise for Life ‘News’ feed, enter: http://www.energiseforlife.com/nutrition-and-energy-news.xml

Application Based

Feed Demon (http://www.feeddemon.com/) – Download the application. On startup, click File > New > Enter the URL of the feed. At this stage, just enter the feed URL. For instance, for the Energise for Life ‘News’ Feed enter: http://www.energiseforlife.com/nutrition-and-energy-news.xml

Sign up for EFL RSS Feeds Here