In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag. Wouldn't it be better to have the latest articles and information delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS.

There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Put plainly, it allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you.It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.

And you never have to pay anything for it, it's all free, all over the net!

You can also easily remove yourself from any RSS feed you have joined at any time.Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity. We have RSS feeds for Friedrich Naumann Foundation Malaysia, just click the orange RSS box if you have a news reader installed.

How do I start using RSS feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a RSS news reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a web browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. The web sites, including ours, which sports an orange RSS button on any page should give you the option to receive RSS feeds.If you click on this orange button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by copying and pasting the RSS URL into a new feed in your news reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their websites. In most cases you simply click the orange RSS feed button and you're done!

If you want to use a web based news reader, here are some popular ones (simply click the image of your choice and follow the instructions):