In the beginning there was email, and it was good. But no one had any idea how much of it you would get. Or all the spam. Then there were email lists, but the spam filters caught them. Or they got harvested for more spam. Or they were mostly junk.
Next came the web, and it was good too. But no one had any idea how many of those there were going to be either. How do you keep up with them all? Bookmarks? Of course we love our old reliable bookmarks, but then what do you do? Keep checking them all day long? Some browsers even tried to develop a feature that would check to see if a page had updated since you checked it last. But that was fraught with problems, especially since many pages may have some sort of change but not the kind of changes you wanted.
Enter RSS and Atom, which Opera refers to collectively as “Newsfeeds” or “Feeds” for short. See, now you know it’s love when you start handing out nicknames, don’t you, snookums?
What are Newsfeeds?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “RDF Site Summary” depending on who you ask. (There’s nothing really all that “simple” about RSS since there are at least 9 variations of RSS out there. But that’s another article on another website.) The difference between RSS and Atom, for our purposes here, isn’t all that important either. In fact I’m just going to use “RSS” from here on out even though I mean both.
What do you need to know about Newsfeeds and Opera?
When Opera recognizes that a site has an RSS feed, you will see this ![[rss icon]](/images/rss-21x11.png){kind=small}
in the addressbar. That tells you that the site offers either RSS or Atom or both. If the site offers more than one, you will see a dropdown list like this:
![[screenshot of Opera offering selection of 3 newsfeeds]](http://operalover.tntluoma.com/images/feeds-dropdown-342x69.png)
When you choose one (or if there is only one type available), you will see a prompt like this:
![[screenshot of Opera asking for user confirmation of newsfeed subscription]](http://operalover.tntluoma.com/images/feeds-prompt-420x182.png)
If you agree, Opera will add a “Feeds” menu at the top:
![[screenshot of Opera menu before Feeds are added]](http://operalover.tntluoma.com/images/feeds-menu-before-feeds-or-mail-233x23.png){kind=small}
Before
![[screenshot of menus after feeds are added]](http://operalover.tntluoma.com/images/feeds-menu-with-feeds-276x19.png){kind=small}
After
Now if, and only if, you have previously setup an email account in M2, you will also see an entry for “Newsfeeds” in the Mail panel. Even if you never plan to use Opera for email, I highly recommend setting up a dummy account in M2 in order to enable the Mail panel, which I find to be a much easier way to manage Feeds than the Feeds menu.
How to create a “dummy” mail account in M2 (skip this if you are already using M2):
Goto Preferences > Advanced > Programs. Change “Email application” to “Use Opera”. Click “Manage Accounts” then “New” then “POP3” and fill in nonsense values. When you finish, get back to the “Manage Accounts”, select the nonsense account, click “Edit” and then click on the “Incoming” tab, and uncheck all of the boxes, especially the “Check for new messages” and “Include this account when checking manually” boxes. That will be enough to trigger the Mail panel.
![[ Screenshot of View > Show > Show newsfeeds ]](http://operalover.tntluoma.com/images/feeds-show-in-unread-272x202.png)
Tip: If you are only using M2 for RSS, I have two more suggestions to make. First, click on “Received” under “All Messages” and then over in the right hand window click on the View icon (eyeglasses), then choose “Show” and make sure that “Show Newsfeeds” is checked. You may also wish to do the same for “Unread” if you want unread RSS items to appear in the count in the Mail icon in the list of panels.
Now as you surf around you can keep track of sites that you like by following their Newsfeeds, and be notified when they are updated.
So you’re wondering, you’re anxious, you’re downright itching to get started signing up for feeds. Aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes already. Well fear not, I’ll end the day with a list of feeds that you might want to sign up for.
- tntluoma.com
- My personal website, where I post on a wide variety of topics ranging from technology to personal to, well… whatever strikes my fancy
- Opera8 Lover
- This website. Get informed of additional entries as they become available.
- Opera’s Press Releases
- News of Opera around the web and around the world
All of the journals at my.opera.com have RSS feeds. Here are some suggested journals (note that those links lead to the actual journals not the RSS feeds, just to give you a chance to read what’s there):
Happy browsing! May the feeds be with you!