Email or RSS Feeds
There is a technology building great momentum on the Web called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), or sometimes Web feeds. Web pages are popping up all over the internet with small orange boxes that looks like this: 
Websites that sport this symbol offer you a simple way to be notified of any changes to their site. For a long time, many sites let visitors sign up for email newsletters, or email notifications. RSS feeds are better. Here's why
What's wrong with email?
Email has become overwhelmed with unsolicited nonsense garbage messages. At the least this email spam is a nusance. Even worse, emails are used to do mischief to your computer by installing unwanted programs (spyware, adware), and even damaging your computer by delivering computer viruses. Many internet providers now offer filters to trap alot of this undesireable email so this it doesn't effect you. That's good. But, it sometimes has trouble deciding whether email newsletters are spam or something you want. So, they might never get to you.
Secondly, for you to receive email newsletters, or email notifications of events you are interested in, you must sign up. Someone wants your email address, a password, and maybe other information about you that they can sell to marketing firms. You may not want to give away information about yourself. And if you decide later to unsubscribe, it may not be that easy.
So, the email method requires you to give away information about yourself, and you have to wade through the clutter of your inbox to find the information you want to know about.
Enter RSS
RSS turns this idea upside down. With RSS you use your browser, or a special sort of browser called a feed reader to collect feed addresses from any site you want to monitor. This feed reader then looks at all of these sites every so often (ever day, every hour, etc.. you choose). If there is anything new on the site, it collects the new information and notifies you of all the new stuff when you use your feed reader. Rather than signing up, and having a bunch of sites send you stuff, you use your Feed reader "collection agent" to go check out things for you and notify you of what's new. No one collects private information about you (No one learns your email address!). If you don't want to subscribe to a feed any longer, you delete it from your list. You don't have to unsubscribe.
More than a better method -- From newsletters to any sort of reminders
If this technique were only used to let you know about newsletter type information, or breaking news stories, it would be a great improvement for the reasons outlined. But it is so much more.