RSS is a data format which is used for collecting articles from blogs and news sites around the web and presenting them for easy reading in one place. Using RSS, you don't have to trawl all your favorite blogs for news manually. You can relax and let the feedreader software do the job. You just have to add each blog's RSS-feed to your feedreader.
As a Windows-based feedreader we recommend BlogExpress from UsableLabs. This is a program that is installed on your computer as any other Windows software. If you are in an environment where you are unable to install software (for example Internet Cafés or securely locked-down workstations), you can opt for a web-based service to read your feeds - for this we recommend Bloglines.com
For Apple users, the coming version of Mac OS X (v10.4, "Tiger") will contain upgrades to the Safari browser, including RSS-capabilities. However, for those who do not want to wait, there's also the excellent alternative NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software.
If you use the Firefox browser, you already have RSS-support in the form of Live Bookmarks. If you do not use Firefox, we recommend that you consider it - it is a safe and fast alternative to Internet Explorer, with a number of efficient and timesaving functions not available in the latter.