What is an RSS feed and how do I use it?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a convenient way to follow websites of importance to you from one convenient place. Like the front page of a newspaper, you see the headlines for all of the new content that's available. An example of content that you can access by using an RSS feed is the Focus on Small Business column that is part of the Support for Small Business website.

The benefit of RSS is that you no longer have to go to different websites to obtain the latest information on your topics of interest. An RSS feed updates your reader with summaries of the content, and then you decide which articles you want to read by clicking a link. How many websites have you intended to go back to and then forgotten about them?                     

Reading an RSS feed is simple. You can use a program, such as Outlook or Bing News to read your RSS feeds. Many web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, also can display RSS feeds.

Usually you will find the Feeds button  somewhere near the other social media buttons for programs such as Facebook and Twitter. To retrieve content automatically, you should subscribe to a feed. To subscribe to a feed, click the Feeds button and then click Subscribe to feeds.                    

There are many RSS readers and they offer a variety of special features, including combining several related feeds into a topic view, and hiding items that you have already seen. Here are links to help you find a tool to manage RSS feeds on your operating system:

• RSS readers for Windows
• RSS readers for Macintosh
• RSS readers for Linux
• RSS readers for Android
• RSS readers for iPhone
• RSS readers for Windows Phone

We, at Microsoft, provide ‘Talking Business’ to help entrepreneurs and business owners’ succeed. We believe in your ability to innovate and in the ability of technology to help, so to support ‘Talking Business’ we have many resources available for businesses like you. We have an informative newsletter, blog posts by people in the industry, and a community looking to help small business succeed.

Follow us on twitter - @MicrosoftSB, or use the hashtag #TalkingBusiness to find out more information