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News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from.
Feeds are also known as RSS. There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.
In general, if you click on a link to an RSS feed like the ones in the right hand column of this page it will display the RSS page and for most browsers you can simply click subscribe on the page.
If your web browser does not allow you to do this you could update your browser software or get something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable stand-alone applications.
Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.
Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it to receive. For example, if you would like the latest Massey News stories, simply visit the Massey News home page and you will notice an orange RSS button at the bottom of each of the news categories.
If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier. For more details on these, please check their websites.
There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time.
Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to choose one that will work with your computer.
If you run your own website, you can display the latest headlines from other websites on your own site using RSS.
We encourage the use of Massey News RSS feeds as part of a website, however, we do require that the proper format and attribution is used when Massey News content appears. The attribution text should read "Massey News" or "news.massey.ac.nz" as appropriate.
We reserve the right to prevent the distribution of Massey News content and Massey University does not accept any liability for its feeds.
Custom RSS feeds and news containers can be created upon request for both internal and external website. (Dependant on content availability and technical compatibility and at the Massey News webmasters discretion.)
Page authorised by Corporate Communications Director
Last updated on Friday 31 March 2017