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Ok, based on this blog post by Steve Rubel, about the Kremlin’s RSS feeds, I’m here to say that no one can ignore RSS (Really Simple Syndication, also called “feeds”) anymore.

I’ll admit, the name is a TLA (three-letter acronym), which is initially confusing. I’ll admit that even knowing the name doesn’t tell you what it’s good for. But once you try it, once you get an idea of what you can do with it, you’ll never look at the internet in the same way again.

That’s a good thing.

It’s time to put the internet to work for you, through RSS.

There are a lot of places you can read about RSS, including this blog. I’ve got a short list at the end of this post.

Here’s RSS in one sentence – “RSS organizes web-based information into a format which allows people to subscribe to automatic updates.” This information can be text, such as blog posts, it can be audio files (that’s what podcasting uses), it can be things we haven’t even thought of yet.

Right now, you need it in order to keep up with the things you need to know about.

As a reader, you don’t need to care how RSS works or even what the letters mean. You just have to know that it works well, and you can use it – it’s a tool, for you. Just waiting for you to pick it up and go!

Yes, you could bookmark all the sites that you read on a regular basis. But then you’d have to go to those sites to see if there’s new content. This gets tedious and time-consuming. Instead, use the RSS feeds in those sites to bring only the updated content to your RSS reader.

Feedburner (a service for bloggers and others who want to syndicate content with RSS) puts it this way in a blog post about the future of RSS:

Feeds provide three critical benefits to any digital media:
1. A notification mechanism for updates to a specific channel of content
2. The ability to subscribe to content, creating a persistent link between publisher and subscriber
3. A semi-structured version of the content

Ok, now you know what it’s for. Next you need to know how to use it.

For that you need two things.

1. An RSS reader, which, like an email application, will gather together all the RSS feeds to which you subscribe, so that you can peruse them in one handy place.
2. RSS feeds that you want to read.

Coming Thursday – ways to read RSS.
Friday – how to find good stuff to put into your reader.

Here are some articles about RSS:

• What are Webfeeds and why should you care? (highly recommended!)
• RSS: The Web at Your Fingertips
• Save time with syndication
• Order From Chaos Via RSS

If you have any questions, ask them here, and I’ll make sure I address them in the upcoming posts!

Added 3/37/06:
After reviewing my del.icio.us bookmarks, I rediscovered an excellent overview of RSS by Paul Stamatiou.