What's does that little orange square mean?

ON the home page of the site there are two orange squares. One is labelled 'Latest Properties' and the other is in the News section.

All this means is that there is frequently updated information available that you can subscribe to by clicking on the icon.

When you subscribe the latest information updates are 'delivered' automatically to your web browser.

Technically, the mechanism used to deliver our latest information to you is called an RSS feed. But don't be put off by the jargon. It's very simple.

So, why use an RSS feed?

Well, you probably have a handful of favourite sites that you visit regularly to read their latest information.

Right now, you need to visit each site, get the information you need and then move onto the next one. This can be time consuming and you may not always remember to visit it.

Very often you'll find a useful site that's a great resource for whatever you're researching but can't remember how to get to it again. After a while there are so many sites to keep track of that it all gets very confusing.

But imagine if the information came to you. Imagine you no longer have to visit each of your favourite sites in turn to get the information you need.

Now, of course, you could bookmark the site in your web browser's favourites but you need to remember to visit them regularly and if you don't you could miss an update.

When you subscribe to an RSS feed, you don't have to do anything. The feed of information you're looking for comes to you.

When searching for property in France most people do their research on the internet from home.

During the course of this research you will find that you visit the same sites again and again to check for new houses coming on the market.

Let's assume that premierfrenchproperty.com is one such site.

We place those little orange squares in places on the site that we update frequently with new properties and in our news section.

When you click on these icons you are telling us that you would like to receive updates automatically as they become available.

A new page opens and you'll see a title such as 'Latest Properties from Premier French Property' or 'News from Premier French Property'.

Above the title you'll see that little orange square again and a Subscribe Now button.

If you have the latest version of the Internet Explorer web browser the feed will automatically be added to your favourites when you click the Subscribe Now button. To see the latest updates click on your favourites icon and then on the little orange square.

If you use don't have the latest version of the Internet Explorer browser or you use another browser, like Firefox, you'll be asked to choose a reader for the updates you wish to subscribe to. This is because updates are put into a computer format that looks like gobbledygook to you an I so we need a special reader that presents the updates nicely to us.

There are three readers to choose from. They are Google Reader, MyYahoo! and Bloglines.

There's no compelling reason to choose one over another but you may already have a Yahoo account, for example, and want to use the Yahoo! reader.

Don't worry if you don't have any of these readers. Unless you subscribe to other information feeds you have no reason to.

We assume that you don't already have a reader. When you click on Subscribe Now you will be taken through a couple of simple steps to sign up for one. All these readers are browser based so don't worry, no software is downloaded to your computer. Once you've signed up, you're done.

So, now that you've subscribed to our 'Latest Properties' or News feeds how do you get to see the updates?

Easy. You simply log into the reader you signed up to and Hey Presto! there they are.

If, for example, you chose to use the Google Reader open Google and at the top of the page you'll see a 'more' link. Click on the arrow beside this link. Then click on 'Reader'. Log in and you'll see all our updates.

Alternatively, just do a searh in google for the phrase 'google reader' and click on it.

If you need any help or have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us