Syndication is the noun form of the transitive verb syndicate.
In the English language, one of the root meanings of the the word syndicate is selling something
(let's say a comic strip) for publication in
many magazines / newspapers simultaneously.
In the context of Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 or Web 3.0, syndication
means the same thing, except that traditional print
media publications like newspapers are increasingly being disrupted by the Internet and the World Wide Web.
TV as a traditional advertising medium in visual media is being
disrupted by the likes of
You Tube. Consequently,
if an author wants to publish something in this digital age (you can call it Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 or Web 3.0),
s/he has to get it increasingly published in the Internet media. If someone blogs regularly, for example,
s/he can steamroll the blogs as
RSS - Really Simple Syndication feeds, which the readers can
access through everything from email clients / Web browsers to iPods / iPhones / handhelds.
Technically speaking, email clients can be web browsers themsleves or more user-friendly tools like Apple Mail
and Microsoft Outlook. Email clients also exist on hand-helds like the Blackberry or the Apple iPhones.
Syndication helps
a regular contributor to the Internet (such as bloggers, web site owners, or more thoughtful authors)
broadcast
their creations easily and simply - hence the Web 2.0 term Really Simple Syndication.