This is the first in my series of How To articles. As with any task, there are a lot of ways to skin the cat. Rather than outline all the ways that you could approach the task, I am going to share with you how I do it. This helps keep things simple. Keep in mind that this is just one approach, albeit a darn good one!

RSS feeds, featured in this past article, are a terrific concept, but finding the best way to read them can still be an arcane process for the average Internet user not familiar with the idea. If you still don’t quite get the idea of RSS feeds, or you are not sure they are for you, follow the instructions and decide for yourself. Follow me.

Background. We are going to use Netvibes, a popular personal homepage service, to read feeds. Netvibes allows you to set up a personal home page quite easily, don’t be scared it is the easiest thing you will do today.

Step 1 - Go to www.netvibes.com
Step 2 - Find the box on the page called “Boing Boing”. Click on one of the news headlines and a new window will open with a feed reader. Congratulations, you are reading an RSS feed!
Step 3 - Sign up for a free account on Netvibes using the “Sign In” button (it does not say “Sign Up”). Now every time you go to Netvibes your personal page will be presented to you.
Step 4 - Now it gets better. You can add as many RSS feeds as you like. There are two ways to add new feeds.
Step 5 - First we can select a feed from their list of suggested feeds. Select the “Add Content” text in the upper left hand corner of the screen, then select “Featured Feeds” and pick a feed to your taste. In the pop-up box, click on “Add to Page”. Now your cookin’, add as many as you like.
Step 6 - You can also add any feed available on the web. Select “Add My Feed” and in the pop-up box under “Enter a URL”, cut and paste the link http://feeds.feedburner.com/Xeepnet into the box. Now you have an RSS feed of Xeep(shameless plug). Every time you go to your Netvibes page, all the feeds will update with the latest content.

There are a lot of ways to read RSS news feeds including other dedicated web feed readers, desktop program readers, and even mail programs, but this is an easy way to get started!