Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
So, you’re wondering what all the hoopla is about? RSS is supposed to be a really simple way for people to syndicate, or subscribe to updates from a website (or a portion of a website). Most new browsers will show a little orange icon to note that a site offers RSS. If you subscribe via your browser, it will create a folder in your Favorite/Bookmarks containing the latest posts or news items from a site. If you also have Microsoft Outlook installed, and you subsribe via Internet Explorer, the new items will show up just like emails in their own special folder in Outlook.
There are hundreds of other programs that allow you to keep up with sites via RSS called RSS Readers. My personal favorite way to keep up on RSS-enabled sites is using Google Reader. It is web-based, meaning you go to a website (www.google.com/reader) to view the sites you’ve subscribed to. The main benefit of Google Reader is that it never misses an item. Some sites are very busy, and thus you may miss some content if you don’t have your RSS reading program running all the time. It also has some other cool features that have made it indispensable to me for keeping up on the things that are important to me.
RSS can be especially nice for those who have several sites/blogs they try to follow. The best way to see the power of RSS is to give it a try. So go ahead, subscribe to my site (or any site for that matter), and see how much easier it can make your life.