[via McGee] A nice definition of RSS from The Seattle Times in an article by Glenn Fleishman:
Many news sites have adopted RSS as an alternative or replacement for e-mail lists, or listservs, which are more and more frequently the victim of unintended spam filtering. Many lists which send subscribers information in the form of electronic newsletters or messages find themselves temporarily blacklisted or they learn after a mailing that double-digit-percentages of legitimate subscribers never received the message.
That problem is avoided with RSS, because you don’t provide personal details to a Web site you’re following not even an e-mail address or password. Instead, the RSS news aggregator software, which is installed on your computer, regularly checks a special file on a Web site feed to which you’ve subscribed.
RSS could also turn into a killer application for handhelds with wireless and cellular data access. “RSS has the potential to make it easier for users to get access to information anywhere on any device,” said Microsoft’s Denny.
