Using RSS With Your Home Page (How-To)

Your home page in your browser is most likely set to yahoo.com or google.com. I would suggest changing this to one of the following alternatives:

Each one of the above is a portal-style version and will serve your needs far better than just standard search. Why? Because you can customize it to the way you want instead of just accepting what’s given to you. (Believe me, the customization is cool. You won’t go back to your old home page after trying this.)

Both have the ability to add RSS feeds for your favorite web sites directly into your home page.

Using PCMech.com as an example, here’s how to do it with each one:

Using my.yahoo.com

First, go to my.yahoo.com. Sign in using your Yahoo! account. You will see a text link on the far top right that states "Hi, Please sign in". It looks like this:

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Click that and login.

If you are already logged in, that link won’t be there. Instead it will look similar to this:

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Click Add Content from the top left and then Add RSS Feed at the bottom. It looks similar to this:

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Note the locations of "Add Content" and "Add RSS Feed". Remember that you must click "Add Content" first.

When adding in an RSS feed, all you have to do is type in the name of the web site’s feed address and click the blue "Add" button. It looks like this once done:

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When finished you’ll see PCMech’s feed directly on your my.yahoo.com page.

Using iGoogle (www.google.com/ig)

Go to www.google.com/ig. If you’re not logged in you’ll see a "Sign in" link at the top right. If you are logged in it will state "Sign out" instead.

On signing in: If you have a Gmail account you can use that. If you don’t, you do not have to sign up for Gmail (you can use your existing e-mail address no matter what provider you have).

If you’ve never using iGoogle before, the system will prompt you to make some customizations (choose a theme, etc), but once done with this and on the main home, you will see the link "Add Stuff" on the top right.

It looks like this:

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After clicking that link you will see a link called "Add feed or gadget" on the bottom left.

It looks like this:

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After clicking that link a small dialog box will appear. All you have to do is type in the web site’s address (just the site – no requirement for the RSS feed address). It looks like this:

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Click "Add" when done typing in the web address. If successful it looks like this:

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At the top left of the screen is the link "Back to iGoogle home". Once there, this is what you see:

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Note the PCMech content.

So if you’re using Google or Yahoo! as your home page, switch over to iGoogle or my.yahoo.com and add in the PCMech feed. It’s a good time saver and you also have access to tons of cool free stuff besides.

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  • stacey

    Excellent Article Rich! I’ve not looked at iGoogle ever but use Google as my home page, so I signed up and couldn’t believe how easy adding RSS could be! I’ve used other, harder to configure and use programs to do RSS and always got frustrated…not anymore. Another great gadget I highly reccommend if you use Twitter is TwitterGadget. It’s the best way to update and view tweets witout needing to download or install anything.

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