Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
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About/Help with RSS
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What is RSS?
How can I use an RSS feed?
Where can I get an RSS reader?
How do I subscribe to a feed?
What is the strange code I see when I try to subscribe?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a tool to help you to keep up with news and information that's important to you, and helps you avoid the conventional methods of browsing or searching for information on websites. Through a simple language known as XML (eXtensible Markup Language), content is delivered to your reader without you even having to visit the website. This delivery of content is called a “feed.” This feed is also referred to as RSS Feed, web feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel.
RSS feeds are meant to viewed by RSS readers. Some newer internet browsers support the viewing of RSS feeds, but the most commonly used browsers do not. An RSS reader is a small software program that collects and displays RSS feeds.
There are different versions of RSS Readers; some are accessed using a browser, and some are downloadable applications. Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer. Downloadable applications, on the other hand, let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.
Where can I get an RSS reader?
Some browsers, such as the current versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari have built in RSS readers. They can automatically check for RSS feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to RSS feeds much easier.
If you're using a browser that doesn't currently support RSS, there are a variety of RSS readers available on the web; some are free to download and others are available for purchase.
Each reader has a slightly different way of adding a new feed - a feed can also be called a “channel.” Please follow the directions for your specific reader. The instructions given here reflect the case in most RSS readers:
- Click on the “Subscribe to TCCC RSS Feed” link found on the TCCC RSS Subscribe page.
- Copy the new window's URL (Uniform Resource Locator). That's the internet address that appears at the top of the page. For the TCCC Podcast it should be: http://www.climate.dot.gov/tccc_rss.xml.
- Paste the copied URL/address into your Podcast application. Each application has a specific way of doing this. Some common ways to do this are “to add a feed”, “add content”, or “add a channel”.
- The RSS reader will update your feeds on a regular interval. This way when new information is made available, you can access it directly from your reader without having to come to the site. Most programs will also allow you to manually update a feed to look for new content.
What is the strange code I see when I try to subscribe?
If you are seeing strange code when you try to subscribe to the TCCC RSS feed, you are seeing the code that is meant for an RSS reader (a program that can understand the code. Some older versions of browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6, cannot read the code correctly. The URL should be placed into your RSS reader to view the page correctly, or it can be viewed in most newer browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0 (or higher).
