Information Feeds and Help

Information RSS Feeds Available from Healthy Advice Networks

Healthy Advice Networks provides several individual RSS feeds that you may subscribe to with your favorite feed reader. If you prefer, you may also sign up for all of these updates via email by entering your email address in the field in the right column and then clicking the "Subscribe me" button.

What is RSS?

"RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication and sometimes Rich Site Summary. RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings. You use RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to collect and monitor your favorite sites in one place (RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed").

RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very short time possible while permitting instant distribution of content updates to an audience.

How do I Get Started?

If you want to collect and browse feeds you have many choices, but there are two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop programs and online services. There are many desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS system users, some are free and others require a small purchase price.

A few desktop RSS Readers* include:

• BottomFeeder (Windows, Mac OS and others, FREE)
• NetNewsWire Lite (Macintosh, Free)
• NewsMonster (Windows & Mac OS, Free)
• NewsGator - Read Directly from Microsoft Outlook ($19.95/yr)
• FeedDemon (Windows, $29.95)

Many more can be found online by searching Google for "rss+reader"

If you prefer to use an online service to track and manage your feeds, you have the advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you use a web browser (and in some cases, on mobile devices). Also, any upgrades or new features are added automatically. The trade-off comes in different features and slightly slower performance versus desktop systems. NewsGator, Bloglines, and new RSS content capabilities in My Yahoo! are probably the three best-known examples of web-based feed reading services.

Once you have feed reading software, look for the "feed available" icon ( ) on a web site. It indicates a feed of content is available. In most cases simply click the icon and you'll be presented with options for adding the site's feed to your feed reader.

*Links are provided for informational purposes only and are not an endorsement of any company, service or software