Think of all the web sites you'd like to keep up with, but don't have the time.
Wouldn't it be great to have someone who would visit all those sites every day and tell you what's new?

Webfeeds make it easier for busy people to keep up with information overload.
You get a summary of what has changed on your favorite web sites, all in one place, without having to visit them all.

Setting yourself up to receive webfeeds is not as simple as browsing the web, but it saves you enough time to make it worth the effort.

Here's how to do it.

1. First, you should have at least one webfeed, like Energy Priorities, in mind before you invest time in the process.

2. Choose which reader you want to use for collecting and displaying the updates. You can install software on your PC, or sign up for an online service that does the same thing. Try MyYahoo! or one of the free trial options for starters.

3. In a new browser window, go to the site you want to subscribe to. Find the or icon, or an button, on a site you want to track.
   
4. Subscribe to the feed. Precise instructions will come with your reader. Some readers have a simple drag-and-drop feature to accomplish this. If not, then right-click on the icon and copy the address ("Copy shortcut" or "Copy link location") and paste that in the appropriate place in your reader.
   

Read your summary any time it's convenient for you. Follow web links from the summary to the source if you want more detail about an update.

At first, you'll subscribe to too many feeds and be overwhelmed with the information in your reader. Then you'll learn to quickly scan the updates and weed out the less useful feeds. That's when you'll wonder how you ever used the web without webfeeds.

There are novel approaches to the reader. The Opera browser integrates a webfeed reader -- it's not worth switching browsers just for that, but if you were already thinking about dumping IE, there's your excuse. WinRSS displays updates as dialog balloons in your System Tray, instead of in a full-blown window. Watch for even more creative solutions in the months to come.

How webfeeds work
Web sites post a specially formatted page, called a feed, containing their latest updates. You don't read the page directly in your browser. Instead, you install reader software on your PC (or use an online service) that displays it for you.

The most common application is for news headlines. Your favorite news sources post a new feed daily, or even hourly. You tell your reader software which sources to summarize and it regularly visits them and fetches the feeds. This process is known as aggregating.

Webfeeds use a standard file format known as XML, which makes the contents of the feed independent from the method used to display them. The result is nearly full compatibility between all feeds and all readers.

Popular Online RSS Readers
Newsgator
Bloglines.com
My Yahoo!

Reader PC Software
Newsgator Outlook Edition
Opera
WinRSS

Energy Priorities Department Feeds
Each department has its own RSS 2.0 feed of the latest headlines and excerpts.

Buildings
Clean Energy
Energy Business
Energy Policy
Renewable Energy
Smart Energy
EnergyBlog only, all departments
Energy Minute Podcasts
All Podcasts only, all departments (includes Energy Minute Podcasts)
EPXclusives only, all departments