RSS Tutorial

Finding RSS Feeds on the Internet

---

---

Summary

After you have an RSS feed reader and know how to subscribe to RSS feeds, how do you find feeds? There are a number of  ways to find RSS feeds on the Internet after you have exhausted Search Engines and Directories.

• RSS Reading Lists
• Popular Blogs
• Preset RSS reading lists in RSS Feed Readers
• Ego RSS Feeds using Google News
• Yahoo Groups
• Personal web surfing
• Other

Detail

RSS Reading Lists

Reading Lists

When you subscribe to a number of RSS Feeds, the list of RSS feeds is typically stored in a OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) file, which is another type of XML file. This OPML file is your reading list. Sometimes bloggers will refer to "my OPML" to mean the list of RSS feeds they subscribe to and read.

See OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)

OPML RSS reading lists provide interesting options.

• It allows us to switch RSS feed readers by exporting the OPML reading list from one reader and importing the reading list to another RSS feed reader.
• An OPML file can be exported / imported to someone else, so that you can share your RSS reading list with another.
• An instructor could prepare an OPML file with an RSS reading list for a class.
• OPML files on different topics could be prepared so that one could subscribe to a set of RSS feeds at one time.

Popular blogs.

The following services summarize relevant, interesting, or popular blogs and feeds.  These services publish interesting or popular blog posts from a wide range of blogs.  Following these services will point to interesting individual blogs that have RSS feeds.

Memeorandum searches political blogs and combines blog posts on specific topics in a website and an RSS Feed. It is auto-updated every 5 minutes, and uncovers relevant items from thousands of news sites and blogs. There is also an RSS feed.  Watching this website will reveal interesting political blogs with RSS feeds. 

Technorati scours the web to see what people are talking about right now.

Preset RSS reading lists in RSS Feed Readers

When you download FeedDemon, it comes preset with a number of RSS Feeds. There are popular feeds in various categories, so one gets a jump start with a set of RSS Feeds.

IntraVnews and other RSS readers provide a default set of RSS Feeds to get one started.

Ego RSS Feeds

You can create the ultimate personal RSS feed by doing the following.

• Conduct a search of Google News for your own name or your company name.
• Click the "RSS" hyperlink.
• Save the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader.

Every time a news article with your name or company name appears in Google News, the feed in your RSS reader will automatically update.

Ego Searches and RSS - Article with various Search Engines that can be used to do ego searches to create RSS feeds.

Yahoo Groups

Yahoo Groups now provides direct RSS feeds natively. If your preferred Yahoo Group is set for open, public viewing of the message archives, then you need only to add the extension "messages?rss=1" to the complete URL and you have a full RSS feed for that Yahoo Group.

More Information on Using RSS with Yahoo Groups

Social Media

Social Media Sites provide RSS feeds.

• Twitter provides RSS Feeds for the Tweets of each individual.
• LinkedIn has RSS Feeds for one's Network and by Category
• FaceBook has provided RSS Feeds but they have been inconsistent.

Craigslist

Want to watch Craigslist for a certain item?

• Search Craigslist for a certain product - for example a digital camera in the San Franciso East Bay.
• Find the RSS Feed on the page and subscribe.
• Each time someone posts a digital camera for sale in the SF East Bay, you will get an RSS feed.
• It can enable you to be first to find a good deal.

Personal Web Surfing

I think the best approach is to build your RSS reading list gradually.

• Subscribe to the RSS feeds when you surf a website or blog that is interesting.
• As you surf the web, watch for the orange RSS icon or button that shows you a website or blog has a feed.
• Try one of the services that summarize interesting or relevant blogs for ideas

Other

U.S. Government RSS Library

Government RSS feeds on Energy, Business, Census, Military, Health, Education and others.

The U.S. Congress Votes Database

This site offers an RSS feed for every current member of Congress, so you can get notified each time your elected officials vote.

Recent decisions of the US Supreme Court.

The US Supreme Court decisions are maintained by the Cornell Law School.

Professional Cartoonists Index

Over 200 RSS feeds for editorial cartoonists.

Time Online

RSS Feeds for TIME Online

Podiobooks

Free serialized audio books, delivered on your schedule as an RSS feed.

RSS Auction

Create extremely specialized eBay searches and subscribe to them via RSS.