An RSS gets live information directly from the web to your computer. RSS takes the latest news from different web sites, and sends it to your computer without you having to go to all those webpages. Instead, you sit back and let the information come directly to you.

The acronym RSS stands for many versions of the same thing.

Really Simple Syndication
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
Real-time Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

In each of the above meanings, the purpose is the same: to have web sites of your choice deliver their latest news directly to your monitor. So instead of having to visit 14 different places to get your weather, sports, favorite photos, latest gossip, latest hotbutton political debate, or most recent headlines, you just go to one screen and see it arranged (”aggregated”) according to your tastes.

The RSS headlines and stories are immediate, and in real time. The moment it is published at the source server, it is on your screen.

Why You Would Use RSS:
To get the freshest news on your favorite celebrity, the country you are about to visit, or your favorite sports team.
If you are a motorcyclist, a skier, a pottery enthusiast, or perhaps a dog trainer, hundreds of conversations and bits of hobby advice can be fed directly to your screen. If you like to change your computer wallpaper daily, then RSS feeds are an excellent way to get the latest from photographers on the Web. If you have loved ones around the globe who do blogging, then you can have all their latest entries fed directly to your screen.

How it Works:
You choose an RSS reader tool for yourself. Internet browsers like FireFox and Safari have RSS readers built into them. You load the RSS feeds into your reader tool. This is achieved through multiple different ways. You can visit the web feed site directly, you can copy-paste the special code from an email, or you can load copies from your friend’s RSS reader screen.
Then you start reading your web feed news! You can arrange the RSS feeds into folders, just like email, and you can even set alerts and sounds for when a particular web feed is updated.