Have you ever seen ‘RSS’ on a page and wondered what it was? Do you see the little orange square with some lines in it next to the address in your browser? Have you ever wondered what a Web site meant when it asked you to “subscribe?” You’re not alone.

But it’s time to harness the power that is “RSS” and join the legions of Internet users who are experiencing the Web in a new and much more convenient way.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Essentially, what it does is grab all of the content off of your favorite Web sites and aggregates them into one real simple reader.

RSS originally stood for Rich Site Summary, but as the technology changed, some of the terminology that goes with it did as well. RSS is really a combination of those two terms. It is a really simple way to syndicate web pages, allowing readers to get a great site summary without having to navigate to their favorite sites every day.

Now, if you’re a simple e-mail and stock quote kind of Internet user, you may not need to use an RSS reader, but I promise you, you’ll be happier if you do.

If you’re an Internet power-user, with a list of bookmarks so long that you check some only once a week or so, you are exactly who the concept of RSS feeds were made for. Just add all of the sites that you want and enjoy being updated constantly by all of them.

There are many, many RSS readers out there. Once you get the hang of the basic concept, you can experiment with other readers.

If you have a personalized Yahoo! or Google homepage, you may already be using RSS feeds, but it is a good idea to learn to use them on your own.

For the sake of this explanation, I’ll have you use Google Reader. Google makes exceptional software, and their Reader is no different. You may grow out of it or want to try something different later on, but you should have no problems getting started with their software.

If you have a Google account (for Gmail, Docs, etc.) you can just go ahead and click on “Reader” from the header bar. Once you’re there, you can start filling in your feeds with what you want to follow.

If you don’t have a Google account, I recommend getting one. Just go to the Google Reader homepage and click on “Create an Account.” Once you have an account, you are ready to add feeds.

There are multiple ways to add feeds to your reader. The first is to simply browse through the categories that the reader provides. Simply click on “Subscribe” for any of the Web sites that you want to add to the reader.

Another way to subscribe is to find the RSS logo, or a Subscribe link on any page you want to subscribe to. On this page, there is an option to subscribe in the top right corner of the header. Clicking on one of these links will ask you what software you want to subscribe from. If you’re using Google Reader, just click on Google Reader and the feed will be added.

Once a feed is added to your reader, all future posts or articles from that site will show up for you to read.

Another option for adding feeds is to click on the small RSS logo in the address bar of your browser (depending on your browser). Most Web sites will load the RSS logo in the address bar if there is a feed to be subscribed to. Clicking on this logo will ask you how you want to subscribe or to what reader.

It’s as simple as that. Once you have put a feed into your reader, the reader does all the work. When you get up in the morning, you can just load up your Google Reader and it will have all of the articles that were posted on any sites you are subscribed to, all ready for you to read at your convenience.

Additionally, you can organize your feeds however you’d like. Want a folder of just sports Web sites? No problem. Just make a folder and drag the feed’s name right into it. Then, you can just click on that folder and get all of your sports news at once.

There is an unlimited amount of ways to customize your RSS feeds. You control what you are reading and how you are reading it. There is no better way to keep in touch with a large number of sites at once than by following them all in an RSS reader.

Once you get the idea, try a different reader. They all offer something different and what you want may not be what I want. If you stumble on a site that you enjoyed (like ThingsThatIKnow.com!), click on the subscribe button up top and add it to your reader. You can always unsubscribe later, so why not add it.

RSS readers and news aggregators are revolutionizing how people get their news and information. As the world becomes more and more wireless, attention spans get shorter and shorter and news becomes more instant, keeping up with all of your news in one place is extremely convenient.

Go ahead, try everything I just said. Come back in a month and tell me I was wrong.

More information on RSS:
WhatisRSS.com
Software Garden tutorial
Wikipedia