Guide for using Feeds and Feed Readers

How to view new headlines and content without browsing for them

Are you often browsing websites, blogs, etc. for new content? Well, then feeds are just the thing you need.

With feeds you just sit back and let the new content come to you in an easily digestible format.

It's not just about saving you time (you probably have plenty time, right?), but it is also a matter of not missing important new content from your preferred online sources.

What are "feeds"?

Feeds are a method of distributing online content from websites, blogs, forums etc., without the recipient needing a browser in order to read the content.

For you, this means that you are able to receive the newest content from your preferred web sources - without actually browsing for it.

You simply have to choose which websites, blogs, forums etc. you want to follow, and then you will receive their headlines and content sent to you shortly after it has been published. To do this, you will need a feed reader.

To read feeds, you need a feed reader

A feed reader is an application that you use to read the headlines and content of the feeds that you have subscribed to. In the feed reader, you can organize the feeds in logical folders and choose how you want their content displayed.

Using a feed reader, you can follow hundreds of feeds from your preferred online sources - displayed in a nice and easy-to-use fashion.

There are many feed readers out there and most of them are free. Some examples:

Google Reader (Online reader) FeedReader (Windows) Newsfire (Mac) Liferea (Linux)

Some use their browsers as feed readers, which basically works in the same way.

Below a screenshot from the Windows based FeedReader. Notice how you can scan the headlines and directly read the articles you find interesting. Clicking on the headlines of the articles will bring you to the website, blog or forum where the content is located.

How to subscribe to a feed

You can subscribe to websites, blogs, forums, etc. if those media offer feeds for their content. Many do, but not all. A fast way to see if feeds are offered, is to look for the typical feed icon, like this one.

These kind of feed icons are often used as links to feed subscriptions. Luckily, e-conomic offers feeds for all online content.

When you click on a feed icon, the feed page will be shown. Below is how a typical feed page looks in a browser: On the feed page, you can simply copy-paste the URL from the browser address bar to your feed reader. That's it - now you have subscribed to the feed and will start seeing new content in your feed reader shortly after it is published.

From the feed page, instead of copy-pasting, you can also use the links provided to subscribe directly to some the most popular feed readers.

At any time, if you wish to un-subscribe to a feed, simple remove/delete that feed from your feed reader. That's all.

Will you know that I subscribed to your feeds?

No, we will not.

We will know the number of subscribers to our feeds and receive statistics about the popularity of our content, but we have no way of knowing which individuals have subscribed.

The only exception from this is if you subscribe to receive feeds via your e-mail. Then we will know your e-mail address.

It goes without saying (but we will say it anyway), that your e-mail address is safe with us and we will not disclose it to any third party and we will not use it to send you anything else other than the feeds you subscribe to. More info is available in our Privacy Policy.

Now what?

If you didn't allready, we suggest you subscribe to e-conomics feeds. It is a simple and effective way for you to keep track of what is going on in e-conomic.

Want to know more about feeds or feed readers? Here are some good resources:

Wikipedia about feeds and news aggregators (same as feed readers). Google Feedburner about feeds.