Getting updates about new posts

In our first presentation of the new start of Chadic Newsletter Online, we mentioned that,

Another feature of most weblogs are news feeds, also known as RSS feeds. News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. In order to use news feeds, you need something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new posts that have been added. Once you have a news reader, you can subscribe to our weblog’s news feed: https://chadicnewsletter.wordpress.com/feed/. You can read more about news feeds at the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/3223484.stm.

Now, not all the readers of our weblog may be able (or willing) to install a news reader on their computer. The other day, Mary Pearce wrote,

I access the Internet on a University computer – so I can’t download any programs to get the newsfeeds, but I can look at the main site – so it would be helpful for me if from time to time you send me an email with the Chadic newsletter address – just to remind me to have another look at it! I’m sure there are others who would appreciate the same.

Some of you may be in a similar situation. It would be very time-consuming and difficult to remember sending email to you whenever something new has appeared.

Also, sending email to everyone would mean more messages in people’s email boxes. After all, RSS feeds have been developed to avoid just that.

Fortunately, there are ways everyone can get just what they need, even without us :-). You can get updates about new information on this website (and any other website) by using the (free) Google Alert Service. It is very easy to use. Here is the explanation given by Google:

Simply visit the Google Alerts home page, enter your search, the type of alert you’d like (News, Web, etc.), how often you’d like us to check for results, and your email address. When you’re done, click the ’Create Alert’ button. We’ll send you a confirmation email; clicking the link in this email will activate your Alert.

Try it out and don’t hesitate to let us know if this doesn’t work for you. We may come up with a still better solution.