RSS is a simple way to be alerted when new content appears on your favourite websites.

In a world with millions of web pages, keeping up to date with all that information, music and video is impossible. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows you to see when sites from all over the internet have added new content. You can receive all the latest podcasts, vidcasts, news items, articles, photographs etc from the sites that interest you without having to revisit each site every day.

Although not all websites provide RSS, it is a fast growing technology.

So how do you start to receive RSS feeds?

First you need to install a piece of software. known as an aggregator, to collect the RSS feeds. There are many different programs that work with Internet Explorer (News Crawler, Awasu) or as independent programmes (iTunes).

One of the simplest programs is iTunes which, once installed, will show you the RSS feed and all the links, or feeds, you have chosen to receive.

After installing the aggregator, you go once to your chosen sites, drag the RSS button across to your aggregator, and from then on your computer will check the RSS feeds you have selected for all the latest updates.