How do I use the BHS Newsfeed?

Do you work at a computer most of the day? Would you like to be alerted news is added to bentonhighschool.com? If so, the BHS Newsfeed is for you. Follow the steps on this page and your computer will alert you to our news when we publish it on our web site.

What content is in the BHS Newsfeed?
BHS produces plenty of news. The announcements in the News area of our home page are updated frequently, but it’s difficult to know when to visit the site to track latest developments. Now, thanks to XML and RSS, we can use the BHS Newsfeed to alert web users when we publish a new announcement. We push the content to you so you don’t have to remember to come to us.

How does the BHS Newsfeed work?
The XML buttons (XML) at the top of this page links to what is called an RSS Feed. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS enables us to create a flow of headlines that web users can view, then click on to visit the BHS web page with the announcement. RSS also spares email systems from having to deal with spam and heavy loads of news-related email.

Here’s a good, non-technical explanation by Slate:
How To Speed-Read the Net: Ditch your browser – RSS makes surfing for news a joy Read story.

How can I read the BHS Newsfeed?

1. Download and install a newsreader (also called a news aggregator) on your computer. Here are some popular readers:

• NewsGator Online - An free online based RSS aggregator. NewsGator Online also includes synchronization with Outlook Edition, viewing content on TV with Media Center Edition, as well as the publication of blogs and headlines.
  
• RssReader - A free Windows based RSS aggregator. RssReader supports RSS versions 0.9x, 1.0 and 2.0 as well as Atom 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3.
  
• FeedDemon - A great Windows based RSS aggregator. This is very easy to use and has a very orderly interface. But this is not freeware.
  
• blogbot - A RSS aggregator plugin for your Outlook or Internet Explorer. The lite version for Internet Explorer is free.
• There are a lot of other RSS readers out there. http://www.ourpla.net/cgi-bin/pikie.cgi?RssReaders has a big list of RSS readers.

If you are using Mozilla FireFox as your browser, you can download Sage, an extension which allows you to view newsfeeds in your browser. See Sage by selecting 'News' from the left navigation menu at: http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/

2. Visit sites with feeds to which you’d like to subscribe, such as BHS, news web sites, blogs, and other sources.

3. Subscribe. You typically click on a Subscribe or orange XML button, such as the one on the right of this page. A new browser window opens showing you the XML code, which you can ignore. You typically copy and paste the XML page’s url from your browser’s Address/Location window into your reader. Be sure to read the directions for your reader before doing this the first time.

4. The news comes to you. After you subscribe to the feed, the reader runs on your computer’s desktop and alerts you when one of your feeds has new content. It typically checks the feed for new content once an hour, so if you want to be alerted more frequently, change your reader’s settings.

5. Scan the headlines. When you see a headline with news of interest in your reader, click on it and the story will open in a new browser window.

Firefox "Live Bookmarks"

BentonHighSchool.com also provides their visitors with Mozilla Firefox's Live Bookmarks. If you are browsing this site using the popular web browser Firefox. You will see an orange box full of the latest BHS news in the top left corner of our site. You will also see a small orange icon in the address bar that allows you to add our site to your live bookmarks. If you are not using Firefox, you can download it here.

Other uses of a Newsfeeds

If you use google or other homepages/emails that allow you to add RSS newsfeeds to the page, you can select any of our newsfeeds to add to your page. One popular option is Google's Personal Homepage. See screenshot below.