Opinion - RSS feeds will offer a path to better tip-offs. With so many RSS feed services available, it's now better to have services push their content to you than you pulling it from their sites, writes David Tebbutt.

When the World Wide Web first impacted our consciousness, acres of newsprint were dedicated to the latest sites and sources of arcane information. We struggled with our mistyping of endless URLs, which took us into the bowels of this and that academic institution. Eventually, everything calmed down and the web became part of everyday life.

Now, we seem to be in a similar situation with RSS feeds. Anyone who writes about them can increase their word count by listing sources of interesting feeds. But soon, RSS will become part of the weft and warp of our online experience.

For those who've not stumbled across RSS yet, it is essentially a 'tip-off' service provided by creators of online material to say that it has been updated. The presence of a feed is denoted by a RSS, XML or Atom button. Most blogs have them, as well as many other sources of information. Closer to home, many content management systems can now create RSS feeds.

For users, RSS feeds provide useful antennae on the outside world. Knowledge workers in organisations need to keep on top of what's going on in their subject field. They want to collect information, especially "breaking news" information, at their convenience and with the least amount of effort. Enter the RSS aggregator and various search engines that do the grunt work for them.

The aggregator provides a one-stop-shop for all the information feeds. The search engines keep a look-out for information of relevance and deliver the hits as an RSS feed. If I were interested in all mentions of "Information World Review" by bloggers, I might pop the term into a Technorati watchlist. Any blogger who dares to mention this magazine will be reported to me automatically.

Other engines look at other sources of information. Sometimes ...