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Even if you’re reasonably Web savvy, you may know RSS only as the cryptic monogram on a tiny button you’ve never bothered to click when it shows up on sites you visit. Too bad.

RSS – or Really Simple Syndication – has for years been a staple marketing and communications tool for people like Joe Beaulaurier, but only recently began catching the eyes and imaginations of mainstream users.

Beaulaurier, interactive marketing manager for PRWeb Newswire, doesn't hesitate when asked what people most want to know about RSS. "That's easy," he says. What is it? He answers them this way:

"We’re all familiar with e-mail addresses and we all have e-mail readers, like Outlook or Hotmail. Now imagine that you can point your e-mail reader to several addresses that receive mail you're interested in.

“That’s what an RSS reader does, except it gets pointed to RSS feed addresses instead of e-mail addresses.”

But there’s also value for those who publish material with RSS “feeds,” such as retail Web sites, commercial blogs and other online business content providers: It gets you noticed.

RSS and Web Site Traffic

AJ Hartley, a Detroit-area technology director and weather hobbyist who plans to include RSS in redesigning his site, says visibility on the Web “is all about search engines, increasing your rank when somebody plugs a topic into Google or Yahoo or Ask.com.

Author: Alice Rhein

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