Assuming you're using a decent internet browser, you will no doubt have noticed a logo like this popping up all over the place. If you've not clicked it then try it and see what happens. You'll find that the whole browing experience becomes easier to manage day after day (at least i have) because what happens is that you get the power of RSS or Really Simple Syndication.

I don't really know what RSS technology does exactly (something about using a simple schema to ensure that data can be read in compatible systems or the like) but what it's done for me is to enable me to get info from multiple websites really quickly and efficiently. By using the built in RSS reader of Internet Explorer 7, i can monitor a whole range of websites for updated content then see that content in a common format. No distracting adverts (well just a few) and standardised text formatting etc. The other great benefit is being able to keep up to date with the latest news - items are tracked by publishing date so it's made really easy to see the latest comments and industry news.

One interesting feature that RSS offers marketing analysts is the ability to track which info online consumers have been exposed to and see which have the greatest impact on the purchase process. I'm not aware of anyone doing it but it is clearly possible to track when people are exposed to individual messages, identify the messages which had the greatest impact and which were ineffective. My guess is that conjoint style analysis will be combined with this data pretty soon to great effect.

For more info click here to see a presentation from MarketingRev.com on RSS for marketeers.