Navigating the Course Website

5.2. Getting an RSS Reader

If you want to take advantage of the course's RSS feeds, you must

Get and run an RSS reader
Subscribe to the course RSS feeds

There are a lot of RSS readers out there, including a number of high-quality ones that are available for free. Increasingly, RSS capability is being built into web browsers, email readers, and other programs, though stand-alone RSS reader programs are still quite common.

In my own experience, the most important ways in which RSS readers differ is in

How are you notified when a new change/item is detected?
Some readers are passive - they store their change notices somewhere and wait for you to come look at them. For example, the FireFox web browser includes an RSS capability - RSS feeds are added as "live bookmarks" and are accessed just like your usual bookmarks/shortcuts, except that the list of bookmarks changes as the info in the RSS feed changes. Other RSS readers are more active - they may flash a notice on your screen or send you email to tell you that the website has changed. For example, the RSS reader in the Google Desktop pops up a small notice near the taskbar when a change is detected, the notice fading away after a few seconds if you don't click on it.

As far as I can see, all RSS readers that do active notification make it optional - you can turn it off if it gets distracting.
How do you subscribe to a feed?
Almost all RSS readers allow you to subscribe to a feed by directly entering the URL of the feed. In this course, you can get that URL by clicking on the icons and noting the URL to which they link. If a web browser has an integrated RSS reader, it may take notice whenever you visit a page and display that same icon (or sometimes an icon with the letters "RSS") in the status bar or in the web address bar. Clicking on that will often subscribe you to that feed. Finally, some readers will automatically subscribe you to all feeds on any web pages you visit. This can be very convenient, but also a bit annoying when, after along browsing session, you find yourself suddenly getting notices from dozens of new feeds. Luckily, automatic subscription can usually be turned off.

A summary of some free RSS feeders I have looked at (feel free to add comments in the Forum if you try these or if you come across others that you think should be listed):
Reader notification subscription notes
FireFox web browser passive RSS icon appears in web address, or via bookmark manager Also check out some of the RSS-oriented extensions. Sage, for example, provides a nice display with more information about each change item.
Google Desktop active: systray popup automatically subscribes to visited pages (optional) I wouldn't install the Google Desktop just to get the RSS reader. It does a lot of other useful stuff, though. <br></br> I believe that the same RSS facility is also packaged with Google's gmail service.
SharpReader active: systray popup drag URL standalone program
RSS Bandit popup alerts multiple, including auto-detect Standalone program, tightly couples with Internet Explorer and Firefox. Includes features for searching/filtering items. Open-source project.

Reader	notification	subscription	notes
FireFox web browser	passive	RSS icon appears in web address, or via bookmark manager	Also check out some of the RSS-oriented extensions. Sage, for example, provides a nice display with more information about each change item.
Google Desktop	active: systray popup	automatically subscribes to visited pages (optional)	I wouldn't install the Google Desktop just to get the RSS reader. It does a lot of other useful stuff, though. <br></br> I believe that the same RSS facility is also packaged with Google's gmail service.
SharpReader	active: systray popup	drag URL	standalone program
RSS Bandit	popup alerts	multiple, including auto-detect	Standalone program, tightly couples with Internet Explorer and Firefox. Includes features for searching/filtering items. Open-source project.