Information is the currency for the 21st century. The difference between first place and second place often comes down to who receives the best information first. Fortunately, technology has been developed to help you get that valuable information fast: and it’s called RSS.

RSS is “Really Simple Syndication” and delivers industry news directly to your computer via a feed reader. A few examples of the types of information available through RSS feeds are:

1. Blogs
2. Job posts
3. News items
4. Special alerts

The advantage to you is that you can stay on top of industry trends and shifts in the market, often before some mainstream outlets report it. This is particularly true if you closely monitor the blogosphere. Blogs are an invaluable resource for retrieving advance information and many professional blogs will give you key insights into what is on the horizon.

Many job boards feature job postings via RSS. Career opportunities are delivered throughout the day straight into your browser or feed reader.

Ultimately, what this means for you is a huge time-savings by streamlining what information you get and how you get it. Instead of surfing the Internet for related links and articles of interest, the information becomes available immediately. You set the content by subscribing through an RSS feed link.

How it Works
Here are a few steps that should help you be up and running today (with more than a little help from About.com)
1. Choose an RSS reader tool: most RSS readers are free to use, and easy to learn. Newsgator, Google, Yahoo, and Mozilla all have quick set up readers.
2. Load the RSS feeds into your reader tool: this is achieved through multiple different ways. You can visit the web feed site directly, you can copy-paste the special code from an email, or you can load copies from your friend's RSS reader screen.
3. Start Reading: log in to your RSS reader page, or start your RSS software, and you can scan all your web feeds instantly. You can arrange the RSS feeds into folders, just like email, and you can even set alerts and sounds for when a particular web feed is updated.

For all of the latest news, blogs, articles and more; be sure to check out the RSS features on DegreedJobs.com and DegreedJobs.net!