What the hell is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.

Translation: Before, if you liked a web page, you would bookmark it and check regularly to see if anything new came up. RSS allows you to link into that page and tells you when something new comes up. Some software display what is new in an email style with the title of the new article and partial or full contents of the article. If you like what you see then you can go to the web page and read it in all its color glory and add your own comments, and other fun stuff.

Some RSS readers that you can use are:

awasu
FeedReader
Novobot
Rocketinfo
FeedDemon

or my personal favorite is the my.yahoo.com page where I put all my favorite RSS feeds. You simply click on the "add content" link that is on Yahoo and then "add RSS by URL", of course you need the URL for the page you want to add and you will find it under the XML graphic where you right click and copy the link's URL and then paste it into yahoo.
Are you confused ? well it is easier to do than explain. Maybe yahoo help can better explain it.

That is not the end of the story, now smart people have come up with new RSS feeds not limited to article lists. It could be search engine results, such as news that might interest you, so you just type the search term you want and it gives you an RSS link that gets updated every time there is an update on what you are looking for example Yahoo news.

Big bucks are going into RSS too, maybe the start of a new .com craze or something.