What is a Newsfeed?

Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. A feed reader, also called a feed aggregator or news reader, is software which gathers syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and blogs in a single location for easy viewing.

RSS allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in.

A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.

What is a Podcast?

Podcasts are kind of like the old radio serials of the 1930s and 40s. They are pre-recorded audio and/or video programs that are posted to a website and made available for download so people can listen to them on personal computers or mobile devices.What distinguishes a podcast from other types of audio products on the internet is that a podcaster can solicit subscriptions from listeners, so that when new podcasts are released, they can automatically be delivered, or fed, to a subscriber's computer or mobile device. Usually, the podcast features an audio show with new episodes that are fed to your computer at planned intervals, such as daily or weekly.