Are you too busy to visit numerous Web sites to keep up with updates about your clients, your clients’ industries, general financial and business news, not to mention your own profession? No need to fret. Thanks to a feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, all your updates can be directed to your inbox, where you can integrate and manage information from various Web sites as easily as you can read and manage your e-mails.

“Web syndication by RSS,” or RSS (typically referred to as Really Simple Syndication or several slight variations), is a format for publishing Web content that arranges data into a standardized structure of headings, content summaries and a link to the original source. This feature draws its power from a technology that was used primarily by techies and researchers.

Many Web sites provide content in an RSS format, called a feed, which users can subscribe to for free (although some providers are beginning to charge for the service). Once you subscribe and configure Outlook to handle feeds, the information is delivered to your inbox. Web sites identify RSS feeds with one of several logos:

This article has been excerpted from the Journal of Accountancy. View full article here.