About RSS Feeds

RSS (an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication") is a way for an organization or author to summarize content, such as news articles, and make it available via News Aggregators (also called "readers"). By subscribing to this RSS feed from Currents Online, you can have new headlines and article previews delivered in an RSS reader or aggregator. RSS enables you to subscribe to feeds from several sources, automatically aggregate headlines from those sources, and browse the content without visiting each site.

A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for download. You can find the right tool for your needs by consulting with ITS or by reviewing the comprehensive listing of RSS news readers compiled by the Open Directory Project. While many aggregators are separate "stand-alone" programs, some web browsers will let you add RSS feeds to a toolbar within your browser (e.g., see the Firefox browser's RSS technology page).

Another way many people use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or "blogs." Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated items and web links.

Viewing the Currents RSS Feed

To view the Currents RSS Feed in your RSS Aggregator:

1. Copy the following URL:
http://currents.ucsc.edu/rss/rss.xml

2. Paste the URL into your reader.