Just a few years ago, if you wanted to know how your investments were doing or find out who won the baseball game last night, you would have to buy a newspaper or turn on the TV news. But those days are over. We're in the age of technology now, and we can have our news whenever we want it, wherever we want it, because news is online. This article will introduce you to some of the formats that online news comes in and how you can get it.

Websites

Websites are your standard way of organizing and displaying information on the internet. The news agency puts up the latest news on their website and waits for readers to come to them and read their articles. Websites are updated regularly as news comes in. The big websites belong to wire services, newspapers, and television stations. You can access news agency websites on a variety of devices, including your computer and your smart phone.

Blogs

Blogs are like websites, except they're much easier to update for a person who doesn't have a diploma in web design. Anyone can have a blog, which makes it easy for niche dwellers to get news that concerns them and only them. A blogger can be a lawyer in a fancy firm, a high school boy, a professional author, a traveling salesman - anyone. Since they can remain anonymous, bloggers often have more freedom to speak out. Blogs are accessed the same way as websites. You can read a blog on your computer or smart phone.

Feeds

Feeds, such as RSS feeds or Atom, are a way of getting the news to come to you. Rather than visiting a website and looking for the new updates, you can sign up to receive that website's feed. The feed will deliver the latest updates right to your email inbox. This is helpful for those who need to stay up to date 24/7 but not spend all their time on a computer. Most people read their updates on a computer or smart phone but some e-book readers also have an e-news subscription feature.

Widgets/Apps

Widgets and Apps are another way of getting news to come to you, one that allows you to do other things while staying informed. If you install a widget or an app for a news website that you like, their latest headlines will be displayed on the side of your screen while you're researching information. Widgets are most commonly used on computer desktops while apps are popular for smart phones like the iPhone and the various Android powered devices as well as tablet computers like the iPad.