RSS is an easy way for you to keep updated automatically on websites you like. Instead of you having to go to websites to see if they have written a new article or feature, you can use RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) to keep you updated whenever something new is added.

spectroscopyNOW.com and separationsNOW.com offer RSS feeds for the News and Ezine sections in each channel, and for the Conference Calendar. RSS is available on the site wherever you see this button:

What do I need to view RSS feeds?

You can view RSS feeds in three ways:

• Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you.
• Using a web-based reader such as Bloglines
• By downloading a News Reader. There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Click here for Google's list of readers.

Please note that these links are provided for your information. separationsNOW.com and spectroscopyNOW.com are not responsible for the content of external sites, or the consequences of downloading software available from them.

What do I do next?

Once you have downloaded your software you need to subscribe to your RSS feeds (note that this is free and you don't have to enter any personal details to do this). Each news reader does this in a slightly different way but in general you need to paste the URL of the feed you want into your reader. You can get this URL either by clicking on the orange RSS button on the page you want to subscribe to, or copy-and-paste from the list below:

For an excellent primer on RSS, visit BBC's "What is RSS?"