Most people have seen the now iconic yellow symbol for RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed. You can use a Web-based feed reader or integrate your feeds into your Microsoft Outlook. Undoubtedly, RSS feeds are the easiest way to get all the news, updates, blog posts and information relevant place sent to you. According to Ben Parr of Mashable, “RSS is not a new phenomenon – there has been real simple syndication based on the XML file format since 1999, although the popularity of RSS didn’t really occur until blogs and news websites started to adopt the format. The process for the user is relatively simple: click on the RSS icon on any website with a feed and it will usually take you to a page where you can subscribe to the feed via an RSS reader or the web browser. For a while, there were two primary ways to read news: visiting different blogs and websites or having articles syndicated to your news reader. For many people, RSS is still the simplest way to consume information.” Steve Ruble of Advertising Age cites an Oct. 20 Forrester Research report, which states that 11% of consumers subscribe to feeds, up from 2% in 2005. However, 40% of the remaining 89% of consumers remain uninterested.

Check out this video from Common Craft, which explains what RSS is, and why it’s so darn useful:

Most online content gives you the ability to subscribe to their RSS feed. The New York Times allows you to choose by topic area which news items you want in your feed. It’s like designing your very own newspaper with only the sections you like. Just want entertainment and style? No problem. Are you a sports junkie who has no time for national news? No problem. The beauty of this tool is that it connects you to the content you want and automatically tells you when there’s new info.

As the video from Common Craft mentioned, there are many reader choices out there. Google Reader is a popular choice. With Google Reader, you can even share items you like with friends or integrate your shared items on your own Web site. You can also access your feed from your mobile Web or any other computer, allowing you to have constant access to your feed.

Parr however, thinks that the rise of social media provides alternative tools for getting news and relevant content, giving RSS a run for its money. According to Parr, “To find breaking news, Twitter has become a better medium, primarily because information moves almost instantaneously on Twitter. It can be minutes to several hours before a new post appears in your RSS reader. For discovering content, websites like StumbleUpon and Digg have become alternatives. And for real-time information, there is now FriendFeed.”

I can see where Parr is coming from, in that Twitter provide instant access and integration of all your favorite content (providing they are on Twitter), but also gives it to you in microblog format allowing you to easily review your feed and decide what to read. For my friends on Facebook, their blogs pop up in my wall feed, and I am more likely to visit their blog from Facebook than from the link in my inbox. However, with Twitter and Facebook updating so rapidly,I can count on my RSS feed to keep my news in one safe place.