How to use RSS feeds to follow content

CommonBits uses a technology called Really-Simple-Syndication (RSS) to help you follow your favorite shows or topics without even visiting our Web site.

To use our RSS feeds, you’ll need what’s called an RSS feed reader. We recommend Bloglines, a Web-based RSS feed reader. But you can also use feed readers that plug into popular Web browsers or email programs. 

Sage is a feed reader extension for Mozilla Firefox. Mac Safari for OS X Tiger has an RSS feed reader built-in. So does the open source Mozilla Thunderbird email client. You can find other feed reader’s here.

Once you have chosen a feed reader, there are five ways to use CommonBits’ RSS feeds to stay up on the latest content that appeals to you:

1. Follow all new submissions by subscribing to our main feed

Whenever any item is added to CommonBits, you’ll see a headline linking to it in your feed reader. You’ll also get a summary of new shows for that day e.g. Al Franken, Democracy Now, On The Media, et al.

You can subscribe to our main feed from our home page. The RSS address is http://www.commonbits.org/content.xml and the Bloglines subscription shortcut is here.

2. Follow a specific show

Want to see headlines for every Al Franken or DemocracyNow show? Click on the show link on our home page, then subscribe to the RSS feed at the top of the page. For example, to get the latest headlines for NPR’s To The Point, visit the show page here, then subscribe to the RSS feed http://www.commonbits.org/rss/tag/to-the-point or click the Bloglines shortcut here.

3. Follow selections from your favorite CommonBits channel

If you have a favorite channel on CommonBits, you can "watch" it by visiting the channel page, then subscribing to the RSS feed at the top of the page. For example, visit Jeff's channel, then subscribe to the RSS feed http://www.commonbits.org/rss/channel/jeff or click the Bloglines shortcut here.

4. Follow a specific topic using a descriptive tag

Whenever CommonBits users add new content to CommonBits, they tag it with descriptive information. For example, new clips from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart are tagged with "daily-show" and "jon-stewart". CommonBits creates a feed for each of these tags such that you can visit the Daily Show feed here and subscribe to the RSS feed there (http://www.commonbits.org/rss/tag/daily-show) or click on the Bloglines subscription shortcut here.

5. Use a podcast client to have the latest audio and video segments from CommonBits automatically downloaded to your computer or iPod

Read more about this here.

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