How to Use RSS Feeds the Easy Way

RSS Feed Readers Are Timesavers

They allow you to be instantly notified when new content is published on websites and blogs.

They also save you time because the feeds load extremely quickly in your desktop or smartphone web browser allowing you to quickly preview headlines and excerpts.

Depending on the specific blog or website, you can often read entire articles within the RSS feed reader.

The major problem with RSS is that simple directions can be hard to find, so here is a super-easy walkthrough on how to setup RSS.

Safari 4: My Favorite

For both Mac and Windows users, I highly recommend Safari 4 as a primary web browser. I love it. It’s fast, stable, secure, and free. It also doubles as a great RSS feed reader for beginning and intermediate users. I use Safari 4 for 99% of my Internet surfing. For the other 1% of sites that may have incompatibilities, I use Firefox.

Google Reader: The Easiest

I prefer Safari 4, but I also recommend Google Reader. It works with all browsers and some smartphones.

Firefox and Internet Explorer 8: No-Frills

Firefox RSS tutorial. Many Firefox RSS add-ons are also available.
Internet Explorer 8 RSS tutorial.

How to Setup RSS Feeds the Easy Way with Safari 4

You can click on the images below for a larger view.
Download and install Safari 4.
Go to the Go Student Nurse Home Page.
Click on the blue RSS button on the right side of the address bar.

Safari 4 turns into an RSS reader.
Click the plus button on the left side of the address bar.

Make sure “Bookmarks Bar” is displayed like the image below. Click the dropdown menu if needed to select “Bookmarks Bar.” (If you wish, you can also put RSS bookmarks within folders that reside on the Bookmarks Bar.)

The number of newly published articles are now displayed.

From the RSS reader, you can click to go to the homepage or directly to published articles.

By default, Safari 4 checks for newly published articles every 30 minutes. To check manually, just quit and restart Safari 4 any time you want. Sometimes the numbering goes crazy and doesn’t match the bookmarks. Just quit and restart to get things back to normal.
On any given website, many different RSS feeds may exist. For instance, an online newspaper may have unique feeds for their front, business, style, or travel pages.
If you’re ever given the choice between an Atom, RSS 1.0, or RSS 2.0 feed, choose RSS 2.0. It works more consistently for me.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you may want to read: