A view is a way of seeing a filtered view of the records of a given record type.  Views are available in the tabs for each object you find in the navigation for Salesforce and HandsOn Connect.

A view is the results you get when you set search conditions that display items that match the search conditions. For example, a view of contacts that have "Birthdays This Month" would filter your list of contacts based on a search for birthdays falling on a day in the current month.

By default, Salesforce.com includes a number of views for each object.  But you can also create your own views.