Web feeds
From Elearning
A web feed is a format for delivering updated content to users. Users who wish to receive updates subscribe to the feed in some way (see Subscribing to a web feed below). Updates or "episodes" usually contain an abridged form of content that is available in full on the syndicating site. For example, an online newspaper might offer a web feed that includes headlines and lead paragraphs of the major stories, with links to the full articles themselves.
Web feeds needn't have the regularity or frequency of a newspaper, though. A feed from a photo-sharing page will notify subscribers of any recently-posted photos, often including the images themselves.
Feeds can be collected together and filtered using recent browsers (e.g. Firefox 2.0), personalisable web sites ("aggregators") or dedicated desktop programs ("feed readers"). Cultivating a collection of interesting and/or trusted feeds is becoming a central part of the contemporary experience of the web.
RSS and Atom are the two dominant formats for web feeds. Most web feeds have filenames of the form feedname.xml.
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Similar and related tools
Prior to the advent of web feeds, most subscriptions on the internet were handled via email programs (e.g. newsgroups in Mozilla Thunderbird). Web feeds differ in two ways from earlier forms of subscription. Firstly, subscribing to a web feed does not require any disclosure of personal information like an email address. Secondly, web feeds offer a variety of ways to consume the feed content, e.g. browser plug-in, desktop program, and online aggregator (and now email too).
A podcast is a web feed specifically for delivering audio (and sometimes video) content to subscribers.
Web feeds are often combined with blogs. As a teacher or student posts to their blog, other class members are notified of the post through the web feed.
Web feeds are also used to keep track of shared photos and shared videos, e.g. postings to Flickr or YouTube.
Why is it important?
A web feed allows subscribers to keep abreast of changing content without having to visit the source of that content itself. So, on the one hand, web feeds are important because they bring a new, flexible variation on traditional 'push' media to the web. This is why technologies involving web feeds are usually linked to the concept of broadcasting, e.g. podcasting involves providing a web feed which informs subscribers of new audio content. A web feed is thus what makes the difference between putting an audio file on a web page, and publishing a podcast.
Moreover, the experience of subscribing to a web feed is very different from following a link or downloading a file. A web feed gives ordered content a temporal rhythm. Compare a list of links which point to a series of lecture notes to a weekly podcast of those same lectures. The experience of web feed involves the cognitive and affective functions like expectation and surprise, normally reserved for events. In this way, web feeds have helped transform the web from a massive repository of information (a global library), to a world of events, i.e. a place where things happen.
Feed aggregators and readers thus play the role of newspapers in this virtual world. They collect and organise recent online events into a structure that is intelligible to the reader and largely reflects their interests (although, unlike newspapers, the events in question are changes in content elsewhere in the web).
What it's good for
Everyday / intuitive uses
Web feeds are available for most popular blogs and news sources. They allow readers to keep abreast of the latest posts and stories, often in summary form. Thus, the most intuitive use is to connect students to blogs or news sources that are related to their subject area or class activities.
Uses in Education
The value of using web feeds in an educational setting is only just beginning to be explored. Most educators tend to think only of podcasts, which are a specific form of web feed.
It's important from the outset to distinguish a number of different ways of using web feeds, depending on who is providing (or "syndicating") the content, who is subscribing to it, and how it is consumed.
- External provider, students subscribe and consume individually
- Provide students with a list of recommended web feeds from relevant journals, blogs, news sources etc. and encouraging them to subscribe using their own feed readers or aggregators.
- External provider, students consume via their WebCT site
- Present the feeds from relevant journals, blogs or news sources to students via the class WebCT site.
- Students as providers (indirectly), consuming via their WebCT site
- Display the feed of a site that students themselves contribute to - e.g. a class blog or recent posts a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us - on their WebCT site, to make it easier for students to keep track of new posts.
Finding other educational uses of Web feeds may involve thinking outside the square a little bit, and creating your own feeds.
- For example, one could use a web feed to re-enact a series of historical episodes through the course of a single semester, by presenting historical events in the style of current events.
- A similar strategy might be applicable to the literary development of an author, or the development of a genre.
Tools needed to subscribe to a web feed
You can subscribe to a web feed through a "feed reader" or "aggregator", which is a program that can present multiple web feeds in a single view. These can be browser-based, web-based or installed as a standalone program on your desktop.
To subscribe to a feed, you'll need one of either:
- a recent web feed enabled browser
- an account on an aggregator site, or
- a desktop feed reader
Web feed enabled browsers
For windows computers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.0 (IE 7) and later
- Firefox 2.0 and later
- Opera 9.0 and later
For Macs:
- Safari 2.0 and later
- Firefox 2.0 and later
- Opera 9.0 and later
Aggregator websites
There is a comprehensive list of aggregator websites at the DMOZ Open Directory Project
Desktop feed readers
- Feedreader
- Newsgator RSS Suite, which includes the Feed Demon reader
- Sharp Reader (free)
- Attensa for Outlook (delivers feed updates to Microsoft's Outlook Email Program)
Subscribing to a web feed
Add a live bookmark (in your browser)
When using a web feed enabled browser (see above), web feeds can be added through the bookmarking function. Click on one of the links below for instructions on how to add a web feed as a live bookmark.
- Safari 2.0: Safari Web feed tutorial by Dave Taylor
- Internet Explorer 7.0: IE7 Web feed tutorial by Dave Taylor
Click on a feed shortcut
Many sites provide shortcuts (like those shown below) to allow quick subscription to their web feeds. Which shortcuts are provided depends entirely on the site, but often you'll find shortcuts for many of the most popular subscription options.
- Google HomePage or Google Reader:
- Netvibes:
- My Yahoo:
Subscribe Manually
You can subscribe to any web feed by adding the web address (url) or the feed to your feed reader or aggregator page. To do this:
- Look for a web feed icon, e.g.
- Right-click (Apple-click on a Mac) on the icon
- Copy the link address
- Go to your preferred feed reader or aggregator page
- Find the "Add a new feed" function, and paste the address in the appropriate field
- Note that the address should probably end in either ".xml" or ".rss"
Basic actions
Community-building, Following, Notifying, Participating, Re-living, Socialising, Tracking
Related patterns
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