RSS Feeds

What is RSS and How do I Use It?

Get all the latest University of Maryland news from Newsdesk in headline form sent directly to your computer, cell phone,smartphone, slate or PDA. It's free, and easy to do using what's called RSS - or Really Simple Syndication. RSS gives you the power to decide which Newsdesk releases to receive from the University of Maryland on a daily basis (the feeds cover two weeks worth of stories). You can look at what's new and click on the headline link to read the entire story.

Our list of feeds is in the box below. Choose exactly what news areas to subscribe to (you can choose as many as you want, or simply choose "All UM News Feeds,") and after that, it's automatic and timely. See below for instructions for accessing RSS feeds using different browsers and stand-alone applications.

Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer 7&8 (9 is coming) and Other RSS-Capable Browsers

The easiest way to subscribe and read RSS feeds like those on Newsdesk is to use a web browser that handles everything for you. Virtually all modern web browers let you subscribe to, and read, RSS feeds.

The quickest way to add Newsdesk feeds in Firefox is to add the URL of the feed you're interested in to the browser's "live bookmarks" folder. This website will explain how to do that: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/live-bookmarks. If you're using Safari, the instructions for using RSS feeds can be found here. Here's how to do it in Apple's Mail app. In Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, see the oneline Using Feeds page for instructions on subscribing to RSS feeds. Here's an article about using RSS with Google's Crome Browser.

You can subscribe to our Newsdesk feeds by clicking on the "RSS" button - or buttons under "Available Channels" above.

Internet Explorer 6.0 and Earlier Users

The 6.0 and earlier versions of Internet Explorer do not allow users to subscribe directly to RSS feeds. A separate program called an RSS "Reader" or "Aggregator" is required to collect - or aggregate - Newsdesk and any other RSS feeds you want in one place. Free RSS Readers for Windows users include RssReader, SharpReader, Bloglines and iPodderX. Mac users check out this About.Com page with their top choices. Apple's Mail application also lets you subscribe to RSS feeds.

For more information about the latest RSS reader applications, tutorials and using mobile devices to access RSS feeds, visit the website RSS Software.

The Technical Stuff - Briefly

RSS feeds are based on a web page language called "XML". When you see a web site with a box that says 'XML' or 'RSS', that means you can subscribe to an RSS feed to get all the latest news or other information from that site in headline form. Want to learn more? The RSS Software site offers a tutorial at http://www.rss-software.net/rss-tutorial.php.

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