RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way for a site to publish it's updates. RSS readers can read these notifications and display a listing of
updates to you,
user.It's sort of like having a special 'inbox' for emails announcing updates to your selected websites.
Many applications and websites support RSS feeds. You can add RSS feeds to your My Yahoo! page, Firefox has several RSS extensions such as Sage, there are sites that deal w/ RSS feeds such as Feedsterand FastBuzz. Thunderbird even allows you to set up RSS feeds similar to your inbox.
There are also stand alone applications for RSS feeds like Pluck, RSSReader and SharpReader.
Different readers allow you to subscribe to a feed differently. Using Firefox w/ Sage, for example, you can drag-and-drop
RSS icon into your RSS feed folder and it's done.
What's
benefit?
You can use RSS feeds to see if there's anything new at a given site before visiting
site. This wouldn't be a big help if you only had one RSS feed. However, if you have several sites you check routinely, this can cut
time down tremendously.