Web feeds explained

What is a web feed?

Web feeds are often referred to as RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Feeds are a popular means of sharing regularly updated content (such as news headlines and blog articles) without requiring readers to constantly visit a Web site to see what's new. Feeds contain titles, short descriptions, and hyperlinks to longer articles or Web pages, as well as a linked reference back to the originating site. New content and links in web feeds are updated automatically.

How do I start using web feeds?

First you need a feed reader (also called news reader or feed aggregator), which is a piece of software that checks web feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are two types of feed readers:

• Feed readers accessed using a Web browser - lets you catch up with your web feeds from any computer
• Downloadable feed reader applications - lets you store web feeds on your main computer, in the same way that you download your email using Outlook or Thunderbird

How does a feed reader work?

Most feed readers look more or less the same. The often have the following features:

• Subscribe button - used to subscribe to a new web feed, this is done by providing the URL to the web feed
• List of subscribed feeds - a list of feeds you subscribed to
• List of feed items - displays the latest news items in the selected feed

An example of a web based feed reader called NetNewsWire:

Feed reader applications

A few of the feed readers available:

• Web based
  • Feedly — Popular, polished feed reader with a free plan and support for Atom feed URLs.
  • Inoreader — Feature-rich feed reader with a free plan and support for Atom feeds.
  • NewsBlur — Open-source web reader with a free tier and support for RSS and Atom feeds.
• Windows
  • FeedFlow — Free, open-source feed reader supporting RSS and Atom.
  • RSS Guard — Free, open-source desktop reader supporting Atom, RSS and JSON Feed.
  • Fluent Reader — Free, open-source desktop feed reader with Atom support.
• macOS
  • NetNewsWire — Popular native, free and open-source reader supporting RSS, Atom and JSON Feed.
  • Vienna — Free, open-source native reader supporting RSS, Atom and JSON Feed.
  • FeedFlow — Free, open-source cross-platform reader with Atom support.
• Linux
  • RSS Guard — Free, open-source and configurable reader supporting Atom, RSS and JSON Feed.
  • Liferea — Established Linux desktop reader supporting RSS, RDF and Atom feeds.
  • Feeds — Simple GNOME reader designed for RSS and Atom feeds.
• Android
  • Feeder — Free, open-source local reader supporting RSS, Atom and JSON Feed.
  • Feedly — Popular cross-platform reader with a free tier and support for Atom feeds.
  • Inoreader — Feature-rich reader with a free plan and support for Atom feeds.
• iOS
  • NetNewsWire — Free and open-source native reader for iPhone and iPad with Atom support.
  • Feedly — Popular cross-platform reader with a free tier and support for Atom feeds.
  • Inoreader — Free-tier reader that synchronizes with its web and Android versions and supports Atom feeds.

Learn Chinese using web feeds

MDBG offers you free web feeds to improve / maintain your Chinese vocabulary, please try them out: MDBG vocabulary feeds.