RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS feed to whoever wants it. You can find feeds easily by following the little orange icon that you can see right now in the address bar of your browser.

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter.

What you need to get started is a RSS reader. There are two kinds of those, either online services such as Google Reader or desktop applications. I recommend the latter and please don’t even start trying dozens of them as I’ve done that for you. If you use Windows get Feedreader, if you’re a Mac fanboy use Vienna.

Once you have downloaded and installed a reader, follow its instructions for adding new channels such as the one of ETTF.

Attention though as the web will never be the same again and you’ll be addicted to subscribing to feeds in no time!

And here’s a little movie explaining the whole thing in plain English: