Keeping Up-To-Date : Current Awareness

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

RSS is "a standardized system for the distribution of content from an online
publisher to Internet users" (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.). In other words, it is a
way to extract new content from a website that is regularly updated and to
push it to users.

It is also referred to as an RSS feed, a web feed, or an RSS channel. It is
associated with the following icon .

The advantages of RSS feeds compared to email alerts:

Anonymous subscription and easy unsubscription;
Do not clog up your email;
Easy information management (latest news, automatic deletion);
Offered by many information sources.

Reading RSS feeds

A variety of RSS readers or aggregators exist:

Specific software (FeedReader)
Browsers add-ons (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome)
Bibliographic management software (Zotero)
Email software (Outlook)
Web services (The Old Reader, FeedReader Online, Feedly, Feeder)
Smartphone or tablet applications (Feedly on iOS or Android, Feeder)

How to add an RSS feed to Outlook

Finding RSS feeds for websites

La plupart du temps, vous pourrez trouver un flux RSS par l'icône .

Si vous ne le voyez pas, vous pouvez aussi afficher le code source de la page Web (clic droit sur la page, choisir dans le menu « Voir code source ») et chercher dans le code HTML les mots « RSS », « Feed » ou « Flux » avec un CTRL+F.

RSS explained

Creating RSS feeds

Sometimes, a site does not provide RSS feeds.

Luckily, there are some free tools that can create RSS feeds for a page that is updated regularly, such as:

Feedfry
RSS.app (pour X)

Other tools can aggregate several feeds to create one that meets a more complex information need:

IFTTT

You can also configure Google Alerts to create an RSS feed instead of receiving an email, as explained on the Feeder website.

Beware: The lasting continuity of these free
tools is not assured!

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