PCA: Our website RSS feed

To keep up-to-date with all the latest updates and additions to this website subscribe to our RSS feed. Then whenever something new is added or information updated you will be amongst the first to find out.

Many of the latest browsers allow you to add RSS feeds to your bookmarks or there are a wide range of dedicated RSS readers.

Click here for the PCA website RSS feed

RSS background information

What is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and it is a way to distribute update notices to a wide number of people who subscribe to the "RSS feed". There are a number of computer programs that organize the content of an RSS feed for easy reading.

What are the benefits of RSS?

Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious. Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem but receiving email notifications from lots of websites can be confusing and they may be wrongly identified as spam. RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.

How does RSS work?

RSS works by having the webmaster maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standard way and called an "RSS Feed". Visitors who are interested in finding out the latest changes can check this list.

Special computer programs called "RSS aggregators" or "RSS readers" are available that automatically access the RSS feeds of the websites you have subscribed to and organize the results for you in an easy to read way.

What information does RSS provide?

RSS provides very basic information. A list of items are presented in order from newest to oldest with each item usually consisting of a simple title, a short description and a link to a web page where the actual information being described is located. This information is coded in the XML computer language for use by a special program and not by a person like a normal web page. However many modern browsers will integrate a special RSS feed reader.

RSS reader programs

An RSS reader is just link a web browser but for RSS content. They automatically check a series of RSS feeds for new items on an ongoing basis, making it is possible to keep track of changes to multiple websites without needing to tediously visit each of the websites yourself. They detect the additions and present them all together to you in a compact and useful manner. If the title and description of an item are of interest, the link can be used to quickly bring the related web page up for reading.

There are many RSS readers available. Some are accessed through a web browser, some are integrated into email programs and some run as standalone applications.

How do I find out if a website has an RSS feed?

It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to "RSS" or sometimes by displaying a special RSS logo button similar to that shown at the top of this page.

Here's how our home page looks in Safari and Firefox with the RSS feed indicator highlighted by a large red arrow:

Once you know the URL address of an RSS feed, you can copy it to an RSS reader and have it monitor the feed for you.

Where can I get an RSS reader?

Two widely available browsers for both Mac and Windows incorporate RSS feed readers. They are Safari and Firefox - click on the name to be taken to their respective download pages (external links).

For more browsers and RSS feed readers one great online resources is Download.com (external link).