Design for the web.

RSS is Really Simple Syndication, and the idea is to have a program (your RSS reader) check the websites you visit regularly for updates, and display them all in one list.

Here are some of the things I use it for:

• Rarely updated blogs: Rands in Repose is a nerd-management blog that publishes one long well thought out post maybe every month or so. My RSS reader dutifully checks his RSS feed every day, and when there’s a new post, adds it to my queue.
• Skimability: We don’t use a lot of Microsoft specific technologies, so I rarely read a full article from Global Nerdy (a blog about Microsoft tech-community in Toronto). I like to know what they’re up to, but I doubt I’d ever visit his site regularly.
• Tracking: The neat thing about any new standard is seeing what neat new things people use it for. My name is too common for vanity Google searches to turn up anything useful, but Google alerts allows me to track mentions of “GiantGoat” or incoming links, here’s a feed of new people linking to us. This is how I keep track of random large goat activity.

RSS is a technology just like HTML, in that many different programs can display it, I use Google Reader to manage my feeds, because they’re mostly work related and I’m rarely far from a computer at work. But I’m eager to try the other end of the spectrum and get a Kindle from Amazon, and have my RSS feeds mailed to me periodically. You can also use dedicated programs for RSS feeds (there’s possibly one on your phone) or add them to Microsoft Outlook.