RSS, Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, is an XML-based format (using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. Using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from your website to others. Users can have constantly updated content from websites delivered to them via a news reader (aggregator), a piece of software specifically tailored to receive these types of feeds.

The big consumer benefit to RSS is that consumers opt-in to obtain content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information they receive. The RSS reader acts as an aggregator, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.

So let’s reverse this whole idea now. Let’s say you have a website or blog. Do you provide RSS feeds for the content on your site? Can your users simply take the content that is on your site and feed it to theirs? In a few years, most websites and blogs will have RSS integrated with their website. RSS will become a standard, just as email has become a standard in our lives today. It will be a regular service that is packaged with the development of every website.

The end doesn’t stop here. RSS will be used for all types of syndication and content distribution of the future. Email will eventually use RSS and corporations will use it for various communication channels to notify their clients of upcoming specials, discounts, product announcements and technical support issues.

I’m excited to see where RSS takes us. Look what email has done for us over the last several years. Email is such an important part of all of our lives – we could not live without it. In my opinion, RSS is just as unique. RSS is going to drive the distribution of content for many years to come, if not forever.