Do you know about RSS feeds and how to set them up? They are a means to be notified − through headlines on your usual home page − about any new stories that are posted to your favorite websites.

They are extremely easy to set up. All major professional websites now have this feature. Often there are instructions about what to do on the website. If not, look for the RSS icon (probably next to a headline) and click on it. You’re likely to see what appears to be a page of computer programming. Go to the very top of that page and find the URL address. That’s the standard web page address that starts “http://”. Copy it.

Now go to your standard home page. In my case that’s Yahoo, but there are many others. You are offered the choice to “personalize this page”. Once clicked on, there is a second option about “RSS feeds”. Simply paste in the copied URL address into the empty box. From now on, you will be notified whenever a new story is updated to your favorite site.

I have RSS feeds set up for the Statistics Canada Daily and the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as several others. You can set up an RSS feed for my Blog. Yes, there is an element of this article that is self-serving.

Of course, there is a logical inconsistency here. If you already know about RSS feeds and how to set them up, then you don’t need to read this story. If you don’t know how to set up an RSS feed, then you may not be reading this story. See what you’re missing?

Alex Carrick

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