Follow topics with RSS
Learn the difference between a site feed and a personal topic feed, and how to read Elseweb matches in an RSS reader.
RSS lets a website publish a list of recent articles that a reader app can check for updates. You subscribe by adding a feed URL to your reader. You can then browse posts from several sites in one place and open the original articles when you want to read more.
A site feed or a topic feed?
A site’s main feed usually contains posts from that site. Some publishers also offer category feeds, such as programming or personal writing. Choose the main feed for everything it contains, or a category feed for a narrower selection.
Elseweb’s personal RSS feed contains articles matched to your chosen interests from listed publishers. It is useful when you want to discover writers as well as follow familiar ones. Availability depends on matching articles in the catalogue.
Add your Elseweb feed to a reader
- Sign in and choose your interests.
- Open the RSS feed page.
- Copy your private feed address and add it as a subscription in your RSS reader.
- Let your reader refresh the feed. Open an article link to read it on the publisher’s site.
Keep the address private
The address contains an access token. Anyone who has it can read that feed, so avoid posting it publicly or including it in screenshots. Adding it to a hosted RSS service shares access with that service. If it leaks, replace the token from the RSS settings and update the subscription in your reader.
When the feed is empty
Check that you have selected interests and that Elseweb has matching articles. A reader may also need time to refresh. Elseweb keeps article listings for a limited period, so the feed is not a permanent archive of everything you have read.