What are News Feeds?
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.
How do I start using feeds?
In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader or aggregator. 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 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 to receive the latest post from my blog, simply visit any of my web pages or blog and you will notice an orange button  . It will either appear in your browser menu bar (Internet Explorer), in the address bar (Firefox) or optionally in various links on the web page.
Click on the orange button and you will be taken to the RSS news feed.
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 this icon when
they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier. For more
details on these, please check their websites.
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NEWS READERS
Windows
Mac OS X
Web
Browser
Julian Megson Sailing is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
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How do I get a news reader?
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.
Using News feeds on your site
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 our News feeds as part of any website, however, we do require that the proper format and attribution is used when 'Julian Megson Sailing' News content appears. The attribution text should read "Jullian Megson Sailing" or "julianmegson.com" as appropriate.
We reserve the right to prevent the distribution of our news content and we do not accept any liability for our feeds.
Can I make my own feeds?
It is possible to create your own feeds. You can access a news feed direct from a web page or blog, or by using an internet search engine. The first step is to choose a search term, and type it into the search engine as normal - e.g. type "Julian Megson Sailing blog" into Google search. When your search results load, choose a link, review the results, and if they accurately reflect the topic you have chosen you can now use the orange feeds button to add the selection to your news reader, or to your website.
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