What is an RSS Feed?

(Really Simple Syndication)

RSS allows you to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds, typically sites that change or add content regularly (or in my case, not so regularly 🙂 ) like daveryder.com does.

By subscribing to our RSS feed you will receive the latest Dave Ryder news as soon it is published (yay!).

In the typical scenario of using web feeds, a content provider (like me) publishes a feed link on their site which end users (you) can register with a feed reader. Readers can be scheduled to check for new content whenever you like.

Where can I get a Feed Reader?

Here is a list with comparison charts of most RSS Readers. I actually use the RSS Reader built into my email client (Thunderbird), so I really can’t recommend one.

Benefits:

Web feeds have some advantages compared to receiving frequently published content via email:

When subscribing to a feed, users do not disclose their email address, so users are not increasing their exposure to threats associated with email: spam, viruses, phishing, and identity theft.

If users want to stop receiving news, they do not have to send an “unsubscribe” request; users can simply remove the feed from their aggregator.

The feed items are automatically “sorted” in the sense that each feed URL has its own sets of entries (unlike an email box, where all mails are in one big pile and email programs have to resort to complicated rules and pattern matching).

For a better explaination of RSS feeds go here.
Google answers these types of questions better than me 🙂