RSS: what is it?
RSS is essentially a piece of technology, combined with some rules and standards. The main purpose of RSS is to provide a flexible mechanism to alert you when new content becomes available on websites and blogs that you are interested in and to facilitate the access to this new content.
Without RSS, you have to revisit these websites to check for updates. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the newsletter of such website. However, in such scenario, you have to provide your e-mail address or other personal information, which is something you might prefer not doing.
Here, RSS provides a solution.
The main element of RSS is the so-called RSS feed. An RSS feed is nothing more than another webpage on the website you are interested in. On that page, the owner of the website will mention the addresses of all pages that were updated or added (at least, the ones he wants the world to know about). When you "subscribe" to an RSS feed, this special webpage will be checked at regular intervals and you will be informed of any new content.
Of course, in order to enable this, you need something. This can be either a browser that is RSS-enabled (e.g. Firefox), or you use an on-line application such as Newsgator or Bloglines, or you use a program on your PC (e.g. FeedReader or FeedDemon). Most of these solutions are free.
Once you have this browser or application, you can start entering the addresses of the RSS feeds you are interested in. Once this is done, the browser or the application will check these feeds at regular intervals and inform you when anything has changed.
In general, this is done by showing you a list of links to the web pages that have been added or have changed. Clicking on such link gives you access to the corresponding page. Depending upon the application you use, the visual presentation and the options will differ, but the overall concept is always the same.
