JOHN HARRIS discovers a free online service that has helped him stay afloat in the flood of email that fills his inbox each day.

Some days I feel like I'm drowning in information.

For example, yesterday I received 221 emails and several times that volume in junk mail.

So today I started looking for channel that information flood so it comes out as a tap rather than a torrent.

My first step was to set up an RSS reader. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, an information delivery mechanism that lets you stay on top of a lot of regularly changing online content, such as news websites and blogs.

RSS feeds have been around for years, so I admit I am a late adopter of this technology, but already I'm a convert.

Instead of having to visit a bunch of different websites, or read through dozens of emailed newsletters, I now use a single web page to read an index of all the new stories from the RSS-enabled sites that I've subscribed to. To read more, I just click on the subject line displayed in the index.

Confusingly, the initials "RSS" refer to several different formats: Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0); RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90); and Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).

Another reader format is ATOM, a standard that describes the structure of XML file-based web feeds.

However, all you need to do is choose an RSS reader that you like to use and then begin subscribing to your preferred website feeds.

There are many different RSS reader programs available for various computer platforms including Windows, MacOS and Linux. Here are a few popular Windows RSS readers and where to find them:

·         Newz Crawler http://www.newzcrawler.com/, a RSS/ATOM reader, news aggregator, browser and blog client for Windows which provides access to news content from various sources:

·         FeedDemon for Windows http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/FeedDemon/, which looks a bit like Outlook 2003, is a feature-rich and well organised RSS feed reader for Windows.

·         Attensa for Outlook http://www.attensa.com/products/readers/outlook, is a business-focused RSS reader that integrates your RSS feeds with Microsoft Outlook.

For convenience, I opted for the Google Reader, which provides an online service that I can access from any computer. It's free through a standard Gmail account and takes only a minute to set up.

What it lacks in bells and whistles, Google Reader makes up for in simplicity for retrieving, indexing and absorbing a lot of new information

Subscribing to an RSS feed - also known as a "channel" - is easy. I can either search for feeds from Google Reader, by selecting the "Add Subscription" button, or I can subscribe directly from an RSS-equipped website.

Once subscribed, the RSS reader program regularly gathers new content from subscribed websites and presents it as an index within a single on-screen page.

The bottom life that an RSS reader is a lifesaver for staying afloat on the daily flood of information.

First published in The Independent, Friday, May 2, 2008 

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