If you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired. I'll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed. Saying that RSS is only for geeks today is like saying in 1998 that the Web was only for geeks.
The statement was made by Robert Scoble of Microsoft. If you've been around the internet for any length of time, chances are you've run across his blog: Scobelizer. He is probably known as one of the most important bloggers on the internet. Amusingly, he actually has a blog fan club. In my opinion, his word carries a lot of weight in the world of search engine technology.
Why is Scoble so adamant in his belief that RSS is so important in search engine marketing? Besides being the new current of technology that will change the face of search marketing faster than any element we've seen yet, RSS is highly targeted; it provides a direct link from a website to the individual. When someone subscribes to RSS, they want the information provided there. There is no better captive audience than a subscriber.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, (or Rich Site Summary, depending who you ask), which is delivered in a format known as XML, which is then translated by an aggregate, or a reader. RSS provides short descriptions of web content together with links to the full versions of the content similar to summaries, or digests. This allows for the subscriber to track frequent updates to a site's news, articles, or even product prices.
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