What is an RSS feed?

RSS - also known as Really Simple Syndication - is an XML-based format for distributing news articles. The San Jose Mercury News has RSS feeds for both news stories and blogs. The feeds include headlines and summaries of stories, and link back to dailynews.com for the full stories. The feeds are completely free to use, both through an RSS reader or to include Mercury News headlines on your web site.

How do I subscribe to a feed?

There are several ways to read an RSS feed. You can download a free RSS reader such as RSSBandit, FeedReader or GreatNews. You can use a web-based RSS reader such as rojo.com. Web browsers such as Firefox and Opera have built-in RSS readers, as do some mail programs, including Thunderbird. Once you've picked out your news reader, read the instructions for the reader to subscribe to the below feeds.