In my humble opinion, RSS feeds are incredibly under utilized and under appreciated. Most people will simply use an RSS news feed to get headlines from their favorite news groups and websites. RSS news feeds were probably never intended to do much more than that, but technology presses on, so you might as well take advantage of it.

Here are five things that your RSS news feeds list can help you with.

1. Be a better cook.

101 Cookbooks, Smitten Kitchen, BigOven, are just a few feeds that share delicious recipes often. Set a goal of cooking one new recipe a week, and just wait for your RSS feed to reveal to you something delicious!

2. Impress your friends.

There are RSS feeds for both a word of the day and quote of the day. Subscribe, learn, and then show off to your friends and family with your increased vocabulary and growing wit. I bet you did not know your RSS feed could be so educational.

3. Protect your computer.

Does your RSS feeds list include a viruslist.com feed? If it did, you would be getting updates whenever a new virus was found. Subscribe to alerts like this to protect your computer.

4. Find you a date.

There are even RSS feeds to alert you to speed dating events. If you are already signed up on a dating site, then you can enjoy RSS feeds from them alerting you to potential matches.

5. Stay in touch with your relatives.

Your RSS feed list can help you to share photos! Try this out if you have a flickr account, or if you know someone who does.

So please, keep using your RSS news feed for all the traditional subscriptions, but also subscribe to more than just your favorite news websites to enjoy the lesser known fruits of Real Simple Syndication. If all you do is check the latest sports headlines on your reader, then that is okay, but you are missing out on what this amazing tool can offer. Believe it or not, this list does not even come close to all that can be done with your feeds.