I see RSS on some websites. What does it mean? Why would I use it for anything?

As indicated above, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The reason it has become popular is in large part because it is an easy way to distribute (syndicate) all sorts of data over the internet from one system to another -- whether it be a news feed or a blog or an image gallery (it can be any kind of data). What also makes this a popular method of distributing data is it is a industry recognized API (Application Programming Interface) and many programmers have developed tools to read these feeds on many/most platforms, operatings systems and devices such as an iPad to a droid phone to a workstation. In short - it is an easy way to transport plain text from one system to another and make sense of that text.

Good Question

RSS is a standard format for syndicating content on the Internet. The content can be anything! Often information contained in an RSS feed is syndicated on other sites which expands its reach.

Website visitors love RSS because they choose which feeds they wish to subscribe to, if at any point they are unhapy with the content contained in the RSS feed they simply unsubscribe and no longer receive notification of feed updates.

RSS is really a win, win for both subscribers and publishers.

In order to get a better understanding of how RSS works download an RSS reader or use a web aggregator and subscribe to an RSS feed (they are usually indicated by a small orange icon).

rss stands for really simple syndication, those are for if you want to keep updated to the latest news,movies, etc.