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What is RSS?

How can I use RSS?

What are the benefits of RSS?

Where can I get a news reader?

What do I do once I have chosen a reader?

What RSS feeds are available from Smith & Jolly, LLC?

What is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It is one of the newest information technology formats being used today by news and data Web sites to distribute news "feeds" to people. The news feeds can contain lists of news headlines, update notices, and sometimes content.

RSS feeds are just a special kind of web page, designed to be viewed in news readers. Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity. Many news organizations, such as the BBD, the Guardian, New York Times, and CNN, provide RSS feeds.

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What are the benefits of RSS?

RSS allows information, such as the latest news, to be delivered directly to you, rather than you clicking from site to site. RSS allows you to see when a site has added new content. You can get the latest headlines and articles (or even audio files, photographs or video) in one place, as soon as they are published, without having to remember to visit each site every day. RSS makes it easier to stay up-to-date by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.

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How can I use RSS?

The first thing you need is something called a "news reader." A news reader is a piece of software that checks RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are different versions of news readers, some of which are web or browser-based, some of which are add-ons to your web browser and some of which are stand-alone applications that run separately on your computer.

Web-based news readers allow you to view headlines and stories right in your browser similar to visiting a web page. In the case of some web-based readers, a site may provide a "one-click" subscription that will automatically add the RSS feed to your reader. Unlike other types of news-readers, however, some web-based news readers - in particular those provided by Google, MSN, and Yahoo! - do not provide instant updates when new stories appear on an RSS feed. This is beacause the stories on these sites are not retrieved directly from the RSS feed with web-based readers. Instead, web-based readers show you a cached version of the feed from the sites own server. The feed is updated by the search engine of the site and will update their cached copy of the RSS feed according to their own schedule rather than when new stories actually show up. Thus, if you are wanting to view the stories as they appear, some web-based readers are not the best approach.

Browser add-on readers also allow you to view RSS feeds directly in your browser, but they typically appear as a side bar or another toolbar in your browser. You can usually drag-and-drop a feed directly into a browser add-on news reader.

Stand-alone news readers allow you to view headlines and read stories directly in the news reader. Many of the stand-alone news readers also will run in the background and notify you whenever a new story is published.

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Where can I get a news reader?

There are a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Most are free, but some are only for purchase. Of course, you will need to choose a reader that will work with your computer's operating system, whether Windows, Linux, or Mac.

You can look at some web-based readers here:

• Bloglines
• Google Reader
• NewsGator
• Yahoo! Reader

You can look at some browser add-on readers here:

• Firefox
  • Sage
  • Wizz
  • Habari Xenu
  • NewsFox
  • InfoRSS

• Firefox or Internet Explorer
  • Lektora
  • Pluck

You can look at some stand-alone readers here:

• Windows
  • Newz Crawler (Windows)
  • FeedDemon (Windows)
  • Awasu
  • Feedreader

• Linux
  • Blam!
  • Liferea
  • YARSS

• Mac OS
  • Newsfire
  • NetNewsWire

Of course, you can always use Google to search for more RSS Readers or view Google's directory of RSS Readers.

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What do I do once I have chosen a reader?

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is add any RSS feeds you want to your news reader. For example, if you would like to subscribe to one of Smith & Jolly, LLC's feeds, simply visit our RSS Feed Pageand you will see the orange RSS buttons listed, much like the button in the top right corner of this page (which will take you to our RSS Feed Page).

You can subscribe to one of our feeds in various ways, including by dragging the image of the RSS feed into your news reader or by right-clicking the image of the RSS feed you want to subscribe to and copying and pasting the link (or shortcut) into your news reader. If you click on one of the buttons on our site, it will take you to a page that reads out that feed in your web browser and includes buttons for "one-click" subscriptions for Google, Yahoo!, Bloglines, NewsGator, and MSN.

Some browsers, like Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for RSS feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon in the address bar when they find one. If you are using one of these browsers, you should see such an orange icon in the corner of the address bar for Smith & Jolly's site. This can make subscribing to RSS feeds much easier. This is also called "Live Bookmarks" and can be used in addition to a news reader.

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What RSS feeds does Smith & Jolly offer?

Smith & Jolly offers several RSS feeds that provide updates from our site as well as news aobut Indian affairs and from Indian country that originates from various sources. You can view the list of Smith & Jolly's RSS feeds on our RSS feeds page.

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