Using RSS

RSS is a "pull" technology. Whereas emails and text messages are "pushed" to you and are subject to being blocked or delayed as they travel the Internet, RSS works by you "subscribing" to a page. Your RSS reader, web browser or mail program monitors the page you subscribe to, usually checking it every half hour, and pulls in new information when it finds it. You do not need to sign-up with the organization providing the information, you merely direct your computer to check for it.

When you visit a FlashAlert organization's news page, you will see in the upper right corner the words, "Subscribe to RSS News Feed." This is a link that lets you copy that page's URL and drop it into your RSS reader or other program. Some computers open a default RSS-capable program when you click on the RSS page link.

Currently, programs through which you can manage RSS feeds include MS Outlook and Internet Explorer 7, Safari and Macintosh Mail. FireFox can pull feeds with a plugin. Here are links to some of the free RSS readers available for your computer:

Google Reader
AmphetaDesk - Free, cross platform, open-sourced, syndicated news aggregator
NetNewsWire (Macintosh)
Using Outlook to gather RSS feeds
A guide to Firefox plugins for RSS
A list of desktop RSS news readers