RSS Feeds

I know that RSS is a way to stay current with information that interests you, without having to constantly visit websites which may or may not have been updated. There are a couple ways to locate an RSS feed. What I found was the simplest for me was to copy the RSS link location by right-clicking on the button within the (Firefox) toolbar, and then pasting it into the “Add Subscription” box on the Google Reader page. I subscribed to the Google “News” feed bundle.

I didn’t really like the Google Reader or its interface. Even though I regularly use gmail, I didn’t like the big boxes that were on the screen (especially the ones that had a headline, small text and a huge add within the box.) I would have liked it better if it had been more like the Google News page, where it just lists the headline and a the first few sentences of the article in a small amount of space. Maybe I would like it if I used it more often, but right now the few RSS feeds I subscribe to go into my Microsoft Outlook and that system works for me.

I selected the Traffic/Transportation feed on the Mercury News site. And I was able to successfully locate all of the RSS buttons and add them to my reader. The only one that gave me trouble was the National Weather Service website, because I didn’t realize you had to choose a link within the site and then subscribe to that particular link.