It's been around for a while now (really taking off around early 2006), but it's still a mystery to most web users — so what is the big deal with this RSS stuff anyway?There are two reasons you should care. First, if you're a web person, information junky, or just someone who likes to read the news from more than one source -- it makes your life easier. Second, it makes it easier for your customers, friends, and anyone else interested in your blog/news/information to keep on reading and keep up to date with your content.
There is a third, less often mentioned reason that may overshadow everything else: the almighty web search. If there is a set of data that a computer can easily use to figure out that "oh look, this has been updated since I was here last," it makes things like Google's indexing a lot easier. This is why many blogs and news services with RSS feeds see their content indexed almost instantly by search engines.
It may seem extraneous ("my content is already up and public, why do I need RSS?"), but the machine-readability of RSS can only help the search engines understand what you're writing and how fresh it is. This means RSS will help people find your content, as well as stick with it over time. If you have a site you want to monetize -- or are just looking for world domination -- you need RSS.
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