Sometimes a name can go against you and I think this may be the case with RSS. One common translation of the abbreviation is "really simple syndication". As one friend asked me, "If it's so simple, how come I don't get it and I'm not using it?" The question has merit as the simplicity may reside more with the publisher. Fortunately, MY Yahoo! offers a simple way of adding RSS to your pages. (Includes 4 minute flash tutorial)

What MY Yahoo! has done is to add 250,000 RSS feeds into their content selection procedure for members. When you click ADD Content, you don't realize that much of the information is coming from RSS feeds. Besides, most readers don't care so long as the content meets their needs.

For this demo, I'll create a page within MY Yahoo! and add our feed and one other from a search term. Please remember that since MY Yahoo! allows customization, your screens may look different. You may also prefer to add RSS feeds to your main page.

To create a new page in MY Yahoo! and add our RSS feed,

1. Log into your MY Yahoo! account

2. Click the Add New Page link towards the right side of your screen.

3. Provide a title in the Page Name text box. As example, I used My RSS.

4. Click the Finished button in the upper right. You should now be looking at a blank content page.

5. Click the Add Content link on the left side.

6. In the Find Content text box, type Productivity Portfolio.

7. Click the Find button.

8. Click the ADD button to the left of our entry. Our RSS feed has now been added to your new MY Yahoo! page.

9. Click the Finished button.

By default, MY Yahoo! displays up to 5 headlines from the past three days. We find the headline doesn't always give us enough information about a story so we change our settings.

To change the RSS settings for a feed,

1. Click the edit link located in the upper right section of the feed box.

2. Select Edit Content from the pop up menu.

3. In the Display Options section, change your settings to suit your needs. For example, we opted to show headline and short summary.

4. Click the Finished button.

Since we have plenty of space on our new page, let's add some more content. This time, I'll search for a topic instead of using a site name.

To add a RSS feed based on a keyword search,

1. Click the Add Content link on your page.

2. In the Find Content text box, type your search term(s). For example, I'm thinking of a vacation so I'll enter travel.

3. Click the Find button.

4. To get a preview of the content, click the title.

5. Click the X to close the Preview window.

6. Click the ADD button if you wish to add the item to your page.

7. Click the Finished button when you're done.

Now, instead of coming to our site to see what's new, you can tell from your MY Yahoo! page. While MY Yahoo! doesn't offer all the features of other RSS aggregators, it really is a simple way to get started.

Additional Resources

• 4 Minute Flash Demo

Related RSS Articles

• Term to Learn: RSS Really Simple Syndication
• RSS Help Page