RSS? What is it?

You may have been seeing those little orange RSS or XML buttons around the Internet. If you were wondering what they are...

It's "the next big thing" -- you can use it to get newsfeeds from CNN or BBC, as well as just about anything else, including news on upcoming movies, DVD releases, your favorite musician's tour updates, etc.

Once you get started, it's like having your favorite parts of the Web come to you. No need to go out and check for updates all the time.

"RSS" means "Really Simple Syndication." What it means to you is that when you subscribe to a site that has an RSS feed, you can keep up-to-date without having to check the site every day or week.

How do you get started? Easy!

Download a free RSS Reader first. This is special software that reads the RSS feeds...

Windows -- RssReader
http://www.rssreader.com/

Mac -- NetNewsWire
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

Once you're set up, here's all you have to do...

Right-click (control-click for Mac users) on the orange RSS button on any page of this site, or any blog or news source that interests you. Select Copy Shortcut ("Copy Link to Clipboard" on a Mac), and paste that URL into your RSS Reader.

That's it! You'll be subscribed.

You can also use a Web-based RSS reader, like My Yahoo!, My MSN, or iGoogle/Google Reader. Look for these buttons further down this page or on the navigation bar to the left.

Click on that button to add the RSS feed to that Web-based reader. If you don't yet have an account, you can set up one after clicking on the button.