What are RSS feeds?

Would you prefer to visit one page showing everything that interests you online, instead of visiting lots of different websites as usual? Do you wish that there was a way to automatically keep a log of things that interest you online, so you don’t need to visit websites regularly to avoid missing information?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, then RSS is for you. All of the information that you want to see from all of your favourite websites can be stored and viewed in one place – an RSS news reader – hence the name Really Simple Syndication.

To view updates from Gerry’s website in an RSS news reader, you need to subscribe to his RSS feed. The RSS feed is a computer code that sends updates from this website to RSS news readers.

How do I start using feeds?

First of all, you need a news reader. There are lots of different types to choose from. Some can be accessed using an internet browser – so you can check your news reader on any computer with an internet connection. Other news readers are downloadable applications – meaning you can only look at your news reader on one computer. It is similar to choosing between a web-based email service like Hotmail, or a computer-based application like Outlook. There are links to four different news readers below, but there are plenty more available.

Gerry’s RSS News feed will alert you whenever a new column, podcast or news story appears on this website. If you have one of the four news readers below, simply click on the appropriate link and follow the quick instructions to subscribe to Gerry’s feed. If you have chosen a different news reader, you can subscribe to Gerry’s feed by manually copying and pasting the address in the box above into your news reader.

Use these buttons to add our Gerry Sutcliffe feed to your online reader: