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What is an RSS feed?

Q. My daughter has tried to explain it to me but I still do not get it. What is RSS?

-- P.M., Miami

A. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, a Web format that delivers regularly changing Web content. It allows users to choose content they want to read from a variety of sites. RSS retrieves the content without the user having to visit individual sites.

To access RSS feeds, a user must download or access a feed reader. Feed readers are available for different platforms, such as FeedReader for Windows or Amphetadesk for Windows and Mac. Users can also access readers like Bloglines and Google Reader on the Web. Once you have accessed a feed reader, just add interesting sites that syndicate content and add their RSS feed to the list of feeds your reader checks.