RSS and Feedreader
June 14th, 2006 by natalie
Posted especially for Lydia. 
Here’s a copy of what I posted some time ago on my other blog (I’ve updated it here, though to reflect information for the newest version of Feedreader):
Have you heard the term RSS? There are a number of different definitions for RSS, but in a nutshell, RSS allows you to receive instant updates from sites as new posts are added. This is a great way to stay up to date with new information without having to visit numerous sites repeatedly to see if posts have been added or not. It has saved me tons of time and increased my ability to keep up with what’s going on literally around the world!
There are many options available, but here are step-by-step instructions for the RSS aggregator I use and really like:
1. Go to the Feedreader website.
2. Click on the “Download Feedreader” link at the top of the right column.
3. Click on the “Download Feedreader 3.03 from Fileforum” link.
4. Click on the “Download Now” link in the right column.
5. Save the file to your computer in the location you select.
6. Once finished downloading, follow the instructions to install Feedreader on your computer.
Once Feedreader is installed, follow these few simple instructions to start receiving updates right away:
1. Click on the “New” button to add a feed to your list.
2. When the “Add Feed” window pops up, enter the url for the RSS feed. (Note: You must enter the feed url, not just the website or blog url. You will have to find a link on the website or blog to the specific feed. For example, here is the feed for my blog. On Blogger, you can usually locate the feed by entering atom.xml following the root directory for the blog in the url window at the top of your browser.)
3. That’s it! You can experiment with different options and organize the blogs into folders, etc.
Feedreader runs as a stand-alone program on your desktop rather than as a web-based reader, which I really like. It’s a great program – you should check it out!
