What is "The Feed"? - The Feed is the name of the CBSi news feed. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regular changed web content. RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving summaries of the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News and Amazon.com.

How do I use an RSS News Feed? - There are two different types of programs you could use to read your feed. One would be a stand-alone application and the other would be a plug-in to an existing application, like Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or Firefox. Here we will cover subscribing to a feed using Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook and Firefox.

1. Internet Explorer 7.0
   There is an orange RSS icon in the tool bar of Internet Explorer 7.0. It is only orange if the site you are at offers a feed, otherwise it will be grayed-out. Click on the orange RSS icon and it will take you to the feed site. There will be a link at the top of the page that says "Subscribe to this feed". When you click on that link, it will open a dialog box to add it to your Feed shortcuts (similar to your IE Favorites).


2. Microsoft Outlook 2007
   Reading RSS feeds in Outlook is easy because you have to use IE 7.0 to "subscribe" to the feed. So read above if you haven't already done so. After you have the feed in your Feeds folder, When you subscribe to RSS Feeds, they appear under the RSS Feeds folder in your Mail folders by default.


3. Firefox 2.0
   When you go to a site that offers an RSS news feed, you will see an orange RSS icon in the address bar. To "subscribe" to the feed, you simply click the orange icon and add it to your RSS news reader. It will save the short-cut in your bookmarks folder. Any time there is new content, your bookmark will be updated.

Now what? - After you have subscribed to the feed that you want, sit back and watch the news come to you. Anytime there is an update, your program will automatically let you know that there is new content to read.

What if I don't want to subscribe? - If you don't want to subscribe to "The Feed", you can visit the CBSi Newsroom for all the latest updates on technology.