Introduction to RSS news feeds

What is a RSS news feed?

RSS news feed are a simple and convenient way to keep up-to-date with dynamic information published on various internet sites, including MUMM's.

Some parts of this web site are regularly updated. For example:

• if a marine mammal strands on one of our beaches or is observed at sea, this information and perhaps even a picture is published in our online database;
• general news about MUMM or specific events.

List of MUMM RSS feeds

If you'd like to keep abreast with this kind of information, RSS will be useful for you.

What exactly is RSS?

The RSS acronym means different things depending on which source you consult. The most common meaning is "Really Simple Syndication”. In short, this technology allows you to identify, choose and monitor information sources. The information of interest to you is brought to you directly though your browser or a RSS newsreader.

How can I read RSS feeds?

There is a large number of RSS readers. Many of them can be downloaded for free. Conveniently, recent versions of internet browsers such as Firefox, Netscape, Opera, or Safari (Mac OSX) can also store and read RSS feeds

Information feeds to which you have subscribed will be managed by your RSS reader, which will allow you to easily access summaries of the latest news items and will provide you with direct links to the full news stories on the respective source web sites.

How can I subscribe to a new feed?

RSS news feeds are in general identified by an orange icon, such as or. Some browsers detect the presence of news feeds automatically. For instance, Firefox displays an icon in the window's bottom right corner:

You can subscribe in in differenty ways depending on your browser or newsreader:

• drag/drop the orange icon in your newsreader
• drag/drop the feed's URL (web address) in your newsreader
• copy/paste the feed's URL (web address) in your newsreader
• click the icon

A few examples?

Here are different presentation options (depending on the software used) for the RSS newsfeed allowing you to check whether marine mammals have recently stranded or have been observed at the Belgian coast. These are screen copies and thus evidently depict the situation at the time of the screen copy.

Firefox + Sage extension (click on image to enlarge)

Firefox Live Bookmarks (click on image to enlarge)

Desktop Sidebar (click on image to enlarge)

List of MUMM RSS feeds:

• MUMM news and announcements
• Marine mammals strandings and sightings database