You've probably seen this on lot's of websites and wondered what it means.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in brief is an easy way to stay up to date about a website. In the old days, if you wanted to see the latest about a website, you would have to open up your browser and go to that website. If you had a lot of websites you liked, you would have to go to each website individually.
Well then came RSS. This allows you to keep track of the latest contest of many websites. There are two ways to do this, you can use an RSS feed reader (like Google Reader), or use your email client (like Thunderbird). Personally I prefer using Thunderbird because it keeps both my email and my RSS feeds in one place.
For example, let's get an RSS feed from Buy.com
To add an RSS feed in Thunderbird do the following...
- First setup the RSS Account in Thunderbird
- Tools>Account Settings>Add Account...>RSS News & Blogs
- Click Next>Next>Finish
Now you've got an account setup - you only need to do this once for the very first RSS feed you setup.
- Now get the link from the website
...click on the RSS button, like this one...
or it might say XML, like this one...
This is often near the very top or bottom of the page, usually around the links.
A lot of the bigger sites like News sites, and online stores have many links you can use. After clicking on the 
link, you should be at a page that has many many of these icons. For our example, let's pick the one that say "Todays Deals". You'll be brought to the next page. Look for the icon, and click on the Subscribe Now button. You should be brought to a page that shows you the following link...
link, you should be at a page that has many many of these icons. For our example, let's pick the one that say "Todays Deals". You'll be brought to the next page. Look for the 
icon, and click on the Subscribe Now button. You should be brought to a page that shows you the following link...http://www.buy.com/rss/feed.asp?loc=14982&grp=2
Cut/Paste this link.
- Back to Thunderbird...
- Tools>Account Settings
- Click on "News & Blogs" (we created above)
- To the right click on the Manage Subscriptions Button
- Click the "Add" Button
- Place the above link into the "Feed URL" text box
- Close that window, and then click the "OK" button
For more details, go to the Mozilla Site
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