Feeds
Select from the feeds below to syndicate content from dotjay. All feeds contain the latest 10 items in RSS format.
- dotjay.co.uk — everything
- dotjay.co.uk — blog entries only
- dotjay.co.uk — blog entries tagged with Web
- dotjay.co.uk — blog entries tagged with accessibility
- dotjay.co.uk — lab updates only
- dotjay Flickr photostream
- dotjay del.icio.us bookmarks
What is a Web feed?
A Web feed allows you to broadcast fresh content from your website to subscribing people or sites. Subscribers receive notifications of when the site is updated without even visiting it, allowing them to easily keep track of the latest news from friends, the latest releases of a favourite band, and more. They are most commonly found on weblogs, where they are used to keep regular readers up-to-date. Let news come to you!
For individual subscribers, the power in these feeds comes from the fact that they can subscribe to all their favourite websites, bringing their feeds together into a central collection. It means you can keep track of all those sites in one place as and when they are updated. Sometimes just a summary of the content is provided on the feed, but links to the full pages of content are also provided so that you can then visit the site to read more if you want.
What's this RSS thing, then?
RSS is a name for one type of Web feed. It's the most widely-used form of feed and the one used on this site. It stands for Really Simple Syndication and it really is.
What about Atom?
Atom is another type of Web feed you might find and has it's advantages over RSS. However, dotjay doesn't publish Atom feeds at the moment, mainly because he's broken them.
How do I start with feeds then?
You can start your own collection of feeds using a news reader (or "aggregator"), which commonly comes in the form of an online service or feed-reading software installed on your computer. For example, FeedDemon is software that you can install on your Windows PC, while Bloglines provides a free Web-based service for keeping track of your feeds. Sign up for an online service or install an aggregator and use them to start managing your feeds.
If you want to find out more about Web feeds, or need a little more help, check out the links below.
Links
Here are some links about Web feeds that you may find useful:
- Introductions to feeds and syndication:
- More technical:
- Definitions on Wikipedia:
- Services and software:
