ConsumerConnect.ie and RSS
Our RSS feed contains the latest topical information from the website's News section.
What is RSS?
RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication". It's basically a clever way of distributing news headlines across the Web to other websites and ordinary users.
RSS is about news you choose. You can receive instant information from hundreds of websites directly to your desktop.
Instead of having to browse dozens of news sites every morning, save time by browsing the information as it arrives on your desktop. You can select particular RSS news feeds to monitor, and see when websites have added fresh content, as soon as it is published.
This means you can access all the latest headlines - and other media such as video and sound podcasts - in one place instead of having to visit all the individual websites.
What you will need
To start using RSS feeds your computer will need a piece of software called an RSS reader (also called a news reader or aggregator) or a RSS enabled browser.
This checks the feeds you select, and lets you read any new articles as they are added. There are many different types of RSS reader, though they all do the same basic job. Some are accessed using a browser, and others are downloadable applications.
Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer. In that sense they are similar to web-based email services such as Hotmail.
A downloadable application, on the other hand, lets you store copies of the articles directly on your computer, in the same way that you can download your email directly to your PC using an email program such as Outlook.
Once you have chosen a news reader, simply decide what content you want to receive. For example, may sites that have RSS feeds will have an orange button on the left hand side. Click the button if you want to "subscribe" to that particular feed (in other words get your RSS reader to track the feed as it is updated).
How do I get a news reader?
Many different news readers are available, most of them free or relatively inexpensive. Different news readers work on different operating systems, so check which one will work best on your computer.
Windows
http://www.newzcrawler.com/
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/
http://www.awasu.com/
http://www.rssreader.com/
Mac OS X
http://www.newsfirerss.com/
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
Linux, Windows and Macintosh (cross-platform)
http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/
Web
If you do not want to download newsreader software, you can visit a website that acts as a reader such as iGoogle or www.my.yahoo.com
Using NCA feeds on your site
If you run your own website, you can display the latest headlines from other websites on your own site using RSS.
We encourage the use of NCA news feeds as part of a website, on one condition: the proper format and attribution must be used when NCA news content appears. The attribution text should read "ConsumerConnect.ie" or "www.nca.ie". You may not use any NCA logo.
We reserve the right to prevent the distribution of the NCA's news content, and the NCA does not accept any liability for its feeds.
Learn more
Find out more in CNET's RSS tutorial