July 13, 2006

Newsgator - Deliver News to Your Enterprise

I had good intentions. I had planned to blog regularly while at AALL in St. Louis. But things just got too busy, as they tend to do at such events. Besides, you really wouldn't want to read anything I might have written after a long day at the exhibit hall. Still, I have a few of what I think are items of significance to discuss. Better late, than not at all!

Newsgator was is the exhibit hall this year, and that’s where I headed first. I had a strategy. I knew I wanted a thorough demo, so I skipped the first program under the correct assumption that the exhibit hall wouldn’t be busy. It’s a good thing, too. Things were relatively quiet, and I spend a good hour looking at Newsgator’s enterprise product.

Newsgator’s RSS reader has been around for a while. It integrates nicely with Outlook, adding folders for RSS feeds in the Outlook folder structure, and is a popular software choice. But I have bigger fish to fry. My fantasy is to make Newsgator the delivery method of choice for all of the firm’s electronic current awareness newsletters, alerts, internal information and outside third-party content. It looks like it might be up to the task. Email alerts could become a thing of the past; forget managing Outlook subscriptions lists. With Newsgator, attorneys could easily subscribe and unsubscribe to the RSS feeds of choice. Newsgator offers an administrative interface to handle your RSS offerings. Feeds can be pushed to a particular group or user, and selected ones can be made mandatory. You can even create topic folders that will combine more than one RSS feed into a single, readable display.

So, for example, if you have an alert running on the name of your firm or organization, you can include a Lexis Publisher feed for general news, and Westlaw Watch for legal news, and offer both RSS feeds in a single folder, so that they can be reviewed separately, or together. And all of this would happen within Outlook, in a folder that looks just like another email folder. Feeds can also be optimized for viewing on handheld devices, such as Blackberries.

If you’d like to provide more focused news, you can choose to set up special keyword searches to run across all your available RSS feeds, collecting that information in to a custom topical feed. For example, you could create a special search on Sarbanes Oxley, to collect news headlines from your available RSS feeds, and presents them as one specialized feed. You can also easily create your own RSS feeds with Newsgator.

There’s a chicken and egg problem, of course. While there’s a lot of information available via RSS, certainly not everything is there yet, so the transition to all RSS alerting can’t happen all at once. On the other hand, Newsgator offers a function that allows you to receive an email and include that email in a Newsgator folder. (This is good for listserv email as well.) But still, any non-RSS email alerts wouldn’t be optimized for RSS, and wouldn’t be as easily scanned by the user. The other problem is that Newsgator can only handle straight text emails, and won’t render html email. That may be remedied in the near future.

It’s one thing to talk about the future, but the burning question, at least in my mind, is what exactly is available in RSS now? Ah, that’s the subject of my next blog.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2006

Google Reader Tutorial (get your aggregator on)

A video tutorial doesn't have to be professionally done to be useful even though the average person may not have the polish of of someone that does voiceovers for a living. That said, if you'd like to get an overview of the Google RSS reader, take a look at this tutorial by "Jason." It's about 10 minutes long, and gives you a good overview of the Google offering.

One feature I didn't know about before watching the video is the ability to create code using Google Reader that allows you to drop an RSS feed into a web page. Very quick and easy, and very cool!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2006

RSS to Email Options

RSS isn't email. And many people, including me, like it that way. I prefer collecting all my list email and RSS feeds in my Bloglines account where the stuff doesn't clutter up my inbox. Of course, there are RSS readers such as Newsgator, Attensa For Outlook, and soon, Microsoft Outlook 12, that will display RSS feeds within Outlook, which can certainly be a convenient alternative.

But if you don't monitor many RSS feeds, it may not be worth it to install an additional application and if you're using a web-based aggregator such as Bloglines for just a few feeds, you can easily forget to read them altogether. That's why it's good to know about some of the available services that convert RSS to email, notifying you whenever there's new headlines for you to puruse.

Librarian in Black notes that Feedburner is now offering an RSS to email feed option to publishers. However, this service is only available to recpients if the blog publisher offers it.

Bloglet, used by LawLibTech.com, is another tool available to bloggers and webmasters to enable email subscriptions to RSS feeds. Enhancements or changes to this service haven't been made in years, though it continues to function...some of the time. From a publisher's standpoint, the inability to easily download a list of all subscribers is a definite drawback to this service. If you register with Bloglet, you can subscribe to any RSS feed, regardless of whether the blog/site offers a Bloglet subscribe option.

R|Mail is another option for RSS to email delivery, and requires nothing more than an email address and the URL of the feed you wish to subscribe to. Registration is not necessary. In my experience, R|mail has been considerably more stable than Bloglet.

Other similar products include:

Feedblitz - Will import subscription lists from Bloglet. Hmm, I'm tempted....

Squeet - Incudes a keyword search option, notifying you of new content from Google News.

Zookoda.com/ - Allows publishers/bloggers to create customized newsletters for content delivery.

Blogarithm.com - Notifies you of new content on any web page, including blogs, via a once a day email with links to updated pages.

BotABlog - Very similar to Blogarithm.

So just because you don't want to be bothered with a RSS reader doesn't mean you can't keep your eye on your favorite blog!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)

January 05, 2006

Outlook does RSS

It's common knowledge that the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 7.0 will support RSS, but what about Outlook? RSS is a "push" technology, as is email, and I'd rather read my feeds in my email app rather than my browser. RSS is also about up to the minute updating, and after all, Outlook is the first app I open in the morning, and the last one I close down at night.

I'm convinced that once Outlook is RSS-aware, RSS will finally really take off, especially in enterprise environments. Well, get ready, because according to Office Watch 10.06, Outlook 12 will include support for both RSS and podcasting!

I know that Newsgator integrates to Outlook AND is offering an enterprise product, but my guess is that most people/organizations would prefer NOT to purchase an additional product if they can help it, so I believe the need for a separate application is greatly slowing down the adoption of RSS in the average or even not so average law firm. Let's hope Microsoft gets it right.

Outlook 12 isn't that far off - it's estimated release is sometime in the second half of 2006 - so be prepared. Though recent statistics have shown that only a small percentage of Internet users regularly use RSS, once it's integrated into Outlook, that number will likely explode. Position yourself to provide internal information, news and updated search results via RSS. You will need to be the RSS expert if you want to deliver current information to your organization.


Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 08:33 PM | Comments (1)

October 30, 2005

Google's RSS Reader

Okay, it turned out there really IS something wrong with my computer. You may recall when we last talked, I was having problems importing my Bloglines subscriptions into the new Google Reader. But I tried it at work, and lo and behold, the export/import worked quite smoothly. I think that's proof that I really DO need a new computer for Christmas!

So I now have all my required reading in the Google Reader. My initial reaction to the product is that it will be well-liked by those that monitor a relatively small number of feeds. Bloglines need not be overly concerned at this juncture.

On the bright side, it's quick and easy to figure out. Once you've subscribed to your favorite RSS feeds, the default view shows you the headlines in order by relevance. (By date is the other sort option.) I can't help but wonder....how do they determine relevance? Think about it, I didn't run a search at this point....so how does it know? It's a mystery to me, but I have to admit, the items listed at the top were quite interesting, so they must be doing something right.

googlereader.jpg


This is not, however, the way I'm used to reading my feeds. In Bloglines, I can see which feeds have unread items, and how many. I can then choose which feed I'd like to read. I've become rather fond of this method. If I'm in a hurry, there are some feeds I'll skip. Others, that are must-reads for me, I go to right away. With the Google Reader, I don't have that kind of view as an option. The list of subscriptions doesn't indicate how many unread items are waiting for me.

But the Reader does follow Google's tendency to keep things simple and clean. And the relevancy ranking intrigues me. I may log on every once in a while to see the Google Reader displays items of interest that I've missed. If you just want an easy way to read a short list of feeds, Google Reader might suit you just fine.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

Google Introduces RSS Reader

I'm a big fan of web-based RSS readers; I've been using Bloglines for some time now. So I sat up and took notice when I saw the announcement that Google was now offering an web-based RSS reader. It's from Google, I'm a Google-holic, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Just an FYI, you need a Gmail account in order to use the Google Reader. That shouldn't be a barrier, since Gmail accounts are now available to everyone. Just select "Get and Account Now" from the Reader page. Since I already have a Gmail account, I went straight to the Google Reader and tried to import my recently exported Bloglines OPML file.

Except it didn't work. Who knows, maybe it's a Bloglines problem, maybe not. But I have to ask, am I the only one having problems with getting Google products to work lately? (Aside from the basic Google search, of course. Luckily THAT'S not causing me any trouble.) Gmail started the trend by rejecting my emails, making it less than useful as an email program. Then I upgraded my Google Desktop Search, which promptly quit working. I uninstalled and re-installed. No dice, so I downloaded Yahoo Desktop Search instead. After all, a girl's gotta be able to search her hard drive. Now Google Reader doesn't want to import my feeds.

I'm trying not to take it personally...heck, Google and I go way back. Maybe I need a new computer...yes, that's the ticket! It can't be Google's fault...it must be me. What a great excuse...I mean reason...to get a whole new system. Would that appease the Google Gods?

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 09:03 PM | Comments (5)

November 21, 2004

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 on its Way and Includes RSS

It seems like only yesterday that Adobe Acrobat 6.0 was released. In fact, it was shipped mid-2003. My, my, software ages quickly these days! Adobe announced last week that version 7.0 will be released by the end of the year. Both PlanetPDF and PDFZone have already reviewed the new functionality offered by 7.0.

Interesting...you'll be able to use Acrobat 7.0 to subscribe to RSS feeds using the "Tracker" tool. This I've got to see! But unfortunately the only mention I could find of this particular feature was in the first part of the Planet PDF Product Tour. It goes without saying that it will be a simple matter to convert those RSS feeds to PDF. It's unclear whether both Standard and Professional will include the Tracker tool.

Adobe continues to improves Acrobat collaborative features, especially in the 7.0 professional edition. According to PlanetPDF, Acrobat Professional 7.0 allows you to give users of the free Adobe Reader permission to use all the commenting and review tools that were previously only available to Acrobat Professional and Standard users, thereby greatly expanding the potential pool of collaborators.

The select tool options are clearer, which will be a nice improvement. The text options were previously a bit difficult to find.

Look for better integration with Outlook in both the Standard and Professional's versions. They both allow you to save multiple emails, with attachments, or even complete folders, to PDF.

Perhaps best of all, Adobe Acrobat 7.0 will load faster, thereby addressing a major complaint of Acrobat users.

But what about the simple stuff like printing bookmarks and creating bookmarks automatically when combining files?? Information on that level of detail is still unavailable. We probably won't know until we have 7.0 in hand and can try it out.

That's not all, but I won't repeat all the features here. For more information see:

Planet PDF - Acrobat 7 Product Family Feature Matrix

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 - Planet PDF Product Tour

Adobe beefs up Acrobat Reader in version 7.0 (PDF Zone)

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2004

Bloglines Remodels!

Bloglines, my favorite web-based news aggregator, has done a major remodel, resulting in a more attractive and more functional interface. There are several new features that I'm just starting to explore. I'd say the most important one is the ability for subscribers to create a quick and easy "blog."

Here's a sample Bloglines blog that I'm trying out to "clip" the many good news items out there that I don't have the time or inclination to comment on in LawLibTech. While I could easily do this in Movable Type, the software I use for LawLibTech, having this feature incorporated into the tool I use for reading RSS feeds makes it even easier to handle. Let me know if you think this is useful.

A number of people have expressed concern about the Blogline's longevity considering the lack of any perceivable profit model. If you're interested in how Blogline's ultimately plans on making money take a look at Bloglines Bows Redesign, Ad Model as RSS Heats Up. The long and short of it is that they expect to introduce an "advertising-based revenue model." I hope they also offer a pay service for those that don't want any ads cluttering the screen.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2004

Review of RSS Readers

If you're still looking for the perfect RSS reader, or just want to get started using RSS, take a look at the PC World article, News on Demand. Editor's Pick is the feature-rich reader called FeedDemon.

But don't just go for the easy choice. You'll want to review the article carefully as each reader reviewed has it's advantages. If you want your RSS feeds delivered to Outlook, Newsgator may be the one for you. To access RSS feeds from different computers and different locations, you'll like my choice, Bloglines, which ran a close second to FeedDemon for Editor's Pick. Pluck RSS Reader displays feeds in Internet Explorer, another interesting option.

What's YOUR favorite RSS reader?

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2004

NewsGator, X1 Push RSS-Search Connection

The race is to provide a way for email users (and isn't that just about everybody?) to efficiently and effectively search their email. Outlook doesn't do it well, though there are improvements in the 2003 version; so third-parties are having a go at it, including Google who is beta-testing an web-based email product with Google search functionality, Gmail.

Another email search company, X1, is partnering with Newsgator to provide search access to Outlook email AND Newsgator RSS files. This news item, NewsGator, X1 Push RSS-Search Connection, is very interesting in more ways than one.

Note this quote from Robert Scoble, technology evangelist at Microsoft, "NewsGator is the best RSS aggregator out there, especially if you use Outlook on a daily basis. Likewise, if you use Outlook, X1 is the fastest and most powerful method of finding and using all of your various data -- a little bit of Longhorn for you before it ships," Scoble said.

In addition, Bill Gates has been busy explaining RSS to CEO's, and does a nice job of comparing the advantages of RSS over email for certain kinds of communications.

So is a buyout of Newsgator in Microsoft's future? Greg Reinacker, the president of Newsgator, says he certainly considers Microsoft a partner, but would not comment beyond that. Either way, RSS is obviously going to play a role in the next version of Windows, which should bring RSS into the enterprise and the mainstream.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:28 PM | Comments (1)

April 18, 2004

RSS Tutorial Part IIIB: Bloglines for Email Discussion Lists

Email is in a precarious state. The mainstream press is questioning whether email can survive. Now mailing lists are in jeopardy. Are we doomed to return to the days of snail mail, phone calls and answering machines?

I can't solve all your email problems, but here's one solution to the tyranny of mailing list email, Bloglines email subscriptions. With the recent release of the new Bloglines display feature, Bloglines has become an obvious choice for managing your mailing list email in addition to your RSS feeds.

Here are the advantages in a nutshell:

  • Spam - Posting to mailing lists such as law-lib can cause a deluge of spam if email addresses are displayed in the list archives and the archives are publicly available via the web. (This is not always the case, of course.) Bloglines email addresses are essentially disposable, so if you start receiving spam you can quickly and easily delete the address, create a new one, and start again.
  • Easy Viewing: In the past I've subscribed to several email discussions lists in digest format, but typically the digest leaves much to be desired. It's not always easy to jump to the email you want to read, and if an email message is in html format, it's just a jumble. Using expandable headings, Bloglines essentially creates the digest for you, and it's very easy to view those emails that are of interest to you.
  • Out of Office: When you go on vacation, there's no need to unsubscribe or postpone.
  • Inbox Clutter: Your inbox isn't inundated with mailing list email, obscuring the urgent message from your boss.
  • Rejection: Your spam filter won't reject list messages that you actually asked for and would like to receive.
  • Unsubscribe: If you can't figure out how to unsubscribe to a particular mailing list, just delete the email address and you're done.

Have I convinced you? Okay, then, start your Bloglines account, and I'll explain how this all works.

  • From your MyBlogs page, select "Manage Email Subscriptions" from the bottom left frame.
  • Click on "Create New Subscriptions" at the bottom of the "Manage Email Subscriptions" page. Your MyBlogs page will now show your new email addresses in the right frame with all your other subscriptions. Note that email subscriptions are marked with a B instead of a folder.
  • From your MyBlogs page, click on "Manage Subscriptions" to change the name from the cryptic email address to something more recognizable. I like to name them for the mailing list I am going to subscribe to using that address, i.e., Web4Lib. I use a different email address for each mailing list.
    TIP: If you can't see all the available options in the right frame where the "Name" field is displayed, click on F11 to go to your browser's full screen mode and expand the frame. You should then be able to see everything including the rename option.
  • Go to MyBlogs again, and click on the subscription name. Click on "Send Email" from the right frame, and, following the instructions for subscribing to that email list to start your subscription. You can also use "Send Email" to post a message to the list.
  • If you want to know whenever a new message arrives, consider installing the Bloglines notifier.

Here's what law-lib looks like in Bloglines with the expanded headings option:
bloglines9.jpg (This is an image, so the email addresses shown above cannot be harvested by spammers.)

That's all there is to it! No, no, don't thank me. Thank Bloglines.

For more on Bloglines see:

RSS Tutorial Part III: Using Bloglines

RSS Tutorial Part IIIA: Bloglines Revisited - New Display Feature!!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:47 AM | Comments (4)

April 17, 2004

RSS Tutorial Part IIIA: Bloglines Revisited - New Display Feature!!

On Tuesday I wrote, "My only complaint with the Bloglines display is that you have to page through all headlines complete with summaries." On Thursday Bloglines announced a new display feature that gives you the option to view expandable headlines for your subscriptions instead of the full entries. Yippee!! This makes reviewing items very quick and easy. Let me show you how this new option looks, and how to change it on your Bloglines account.

Here's how the new frame looks with the collapsed entries.

bloglines6.jpg

Click on the plus sign next to the entry you want to read, and Bob's your uncle, you can see the full entry or summary depending upon what is available for that particular feed:

bloglines7.jpg

To make expandable headlines the default view for your account, click on the "Edit Profile" link on the upper right corner of your MyBlogs page. Scroll down until you see the default display option, and choose "Titles." Don't forget to click "Change Profile" on the bottom of the page. Now all your subscriptions will display with expandable headings.

bloglines5.jpg

If you'd like to change the display option for just one or more of you subscriptions, click on the "Edit" link for that subscription, and choose your display preference.

Is that cool or what. Now I'd like a million dollars, please. [pause] Oh well, I guess I only get one wish this week.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2004

RSS Tutorial Part III: Using Bloglines

While it's true that there are other web-based RSS aggregators out there such as MyFeedster, DailyWhirl, Newsgator, even MyYahoo, none hold a candle to Bloglines. I've recently switched from my desktop aggregator, Newzcrawler, to Bloglines and haven't looked back. Now I can access my feeds from any computer. Bloglines also offers some unique features that I think you'll like. More on that later. Let's start with the basics.

Click on Register to sign up. The only information required is an email address. Since Bloglines is free, no credit card is needed. It may not be free forever, so enjoy it while you can, carpe diem and all that stuff.

Adding Feeds

An aggregator doesn't do you much good unless you've got some news you want to aggregate. So after logging in you might want to browse the Blogline list of their most popular blogs. Note that many feeds on the list are not actually from blogs, but are RSS feeds from some fairly mainstream news services such as the N.Y. Times. Click on the subscribe link next to any that interest you and a subscription will be added to your blogs list; no muss, no fuss.

You can also review my public subscriptions. If you see something you like, click on the link for the feed, then click on the subscribe button to add it to your own MyBlogs page. If you'd like to share your list, note that you can designate some subscriptions as public, and some private so you don't have to share everything. If you'd like to share your public feeds with LawLibTech readers, leave a comment below with the URL.

From your MyBlogs page you can also add subscriptions by simply entering the feed's URL in the box at the bottom of the left frame labeled "Subscribe by entering URL". How do you know if your favorite web page or blog offer an RSS feed? Look for the little orange XML box, , a link saying "Syndicate this Site" or a RSS icon. If you click on any of these three, you should see the xml file. Cut and paste the URL for that file into the Bloglines subscribe box, and you should be set!

By now you should have a few feeds on your MyBlogs page. What? You want MORE? Okay then, click on the My Recommendations link from the left frame of the MyBlogs page and Bloglines will provide a list of additional feeds that you might enjoy. How do they know? Bloglines recommendations are based on the feeds that you've already selected. You may want to revisit the Bloglines recommendations as you refine your MyBlogs page.

Basic Navigation

Your feeds are displayed in the left-frame in a directory-like listing. Folders containing unread news are bolded. Click on a feed, and the headlines and summaries will appear in the right-hand frame. Click on a folder name and new entries from all the feeds in that folder will be grouped together in one long list. The default view shows unread news only; if you'd like to see more, specify how far back you'd like to go in the box labeled "Display items within the last ______" at the bottom of the list of entries.

bloglines2.jpg

My only complaint with the Bloglines display is that you have to page through all headlines complete with summaries. There is no option to view only the headlines so you can pick and choose. Still, paging down is simple enough and I can adapt.

Organizing Your News

Your feeds can be easily organized in folders by clicking on the "Manage subscriptions" link at the bottom of the left-hand frame. Follow the instructions for creating folders and moving feeds.

bloglines3.jpg

I have experienced some problems in the "manage subscription" area. Ticking off the items you want to move, then clicking on the folder you want to move them TO, usually works just fine. Other times not. I have three items I have never been able to move into a folder no matter how many times I select and click. What can I say; every tool has its dark side.

Those are the basics. Now let's move on to some of the fun frills.

Bloglines Bookmarket

Drag the link on this page to your browser's link bar, then when you're visiting a site with a feed that you'd like to add to your subscriptions list, click on "subscribe to this feed" from your link bar, and it will be automatically added.

Email Subscriptions

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Once I started using an aggregator on a regular basis I wanted just about EVERYTHING delivered that way. So I was very excited to learn about Bloglines's email subscription feature. I now subscribe to law-lib via Bloglines. Between filtering spam and subscribing to lists via Bloglines, my email inbox is absolutely sparse! And this is a great way to avoid the spam that seems inevitable with Internet distribution lists. If you start to get spam to the Bloglines address, delete it and re-subscribe under a new one.

bloglines4.jpg

Bloglines Notifier

To be alerted when there are new items in your feeds, download the Bloglines Notifier. After installation, a Bloglines icon sits in your system tray. A message indicating how many unread feeds are waiting for you pops up when new items arrive. A web version that requires no installation is also available.

Nice feature, but the first thing you may notice if you have several feeds is that the darn thing is going off all the time. If this is too much of a good thing, try turning the notifier off for certain feeds. To do this, go to "Manage Subscriptions", check off the feeds for which you do NOT want notification, then select "Ignored by Notifier." You can also right click on the notifier icon, select "Settings" and increase the number of seconds listed under "Check messages every ______ seconds." These strategies should help get things under control.

Keyword Search

You can search your own subscriptions, or ALL blogs, by keyword. This is VERY handy for finding a blog entry you've already read, looking for items in your blogs on a particular topic, or looking at ALL available blogs by topic.

Whew!

This is by far my longest blog entry to date. I will remind myself in the future that blog entries should be short and concise. In the meantime, have fun with Bloglines. Do you love it? Or hate it? Have you found a better alternative? Share your comments or questions!

For more information see:

RSS Tutorial Part I: What IS RSS

RSS Tutorial Part II: Getting Started with RSS Aggregators

RSS Tutorial Part IIIA: Bloglines Revisited - New Display Feature!!

RSS Tutorial Part IIIB: Bloglines for Email Discussion Lists

Topic: RSS, XML & Newsfeeds

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:44 PM | Comments (5)

April 05, 2004

RSS Tutorial Part II: Getting Started with RSS Aggregators

Last week I discussed "What is RSS?". Now that you know what RSS is and what it can do, let's talk RSS aggregators, those wonderful things that make sense of RSS files.

They're called aggregators because they pull all of your selected RSS files into one place making it easy to browse newly posted information from blogs, web sites, and stored searches.

In my opinion, the best aggregators have a very "email" feel to them, reminiscent of Outlook. The worst aggregators lack the familiarity that can make it easy to quickly get up to speed with a new application.

There are MANY RSS aggregators out there. Amphetadesk was an early one, and is free. After I tried it, I avoided RSS feeds for about 6 months. Luckily there are much better options available.

Newsgator integrates with Outlook so you can pickup your email and review your RSS feeds all in one place. Newsgator has received some very good reviews and is quite popular.

My RSS reader of choice is Newzcrawler. While it is not integrated with Outlook, it is a very "Outlook-like" application so the learning curve is fairly low. Here's a screen shot to give you an idea how it pulls together your all your news in one place:

newz.jpg

You can specify the update frequency of each feed, and if you have Newzcrawler open, a headline balloon pops-up to notify you of updated entires. I particularly like the "make newspaper" feature, which compiles all the unread headlines and excerpts into a concise, easy to read HTML page which can easily be pasted into an email message and sent on to other interested parties:

newspaper.jpg

For additional information on RSS aggregators, see:
- RSS News Readers Browse for You, PC Magazine, Oct. 2003
- Refining Paperless News, WashingtonPost.com, March 14, 2004

Web Based Aggregators

One of the biggest advantages to web-based aggregators is that you can easily access them from any PC. If you read an entry at work, it will show up marked read at home. No synchronization is necessary. In the past this advantage didn't necessarily make up for the lack of features in the web-based versions, but, as happens on the Internet, such services are quickly evolving.

There are several web-based aggregators out there, but none are as good as Bloglines. And, for now at least, it's free. What a quick and easy way to get started with RSS feeds!

Bloglines provides a left-frame with a directory-like listing of all of your RSS feeds. Your news can be easily organized in folders. Folders containing unread news are bolded. Just click and read.

bloglines.jpg

By the way, I wouldn't be surprised if the next version of Outlook will have it's very own RSS reader. That alone would ensure that RSS would quickly reach critical mass, so be prepared!

Coming attractions - RSS Tutorial Part III: Using Bloglines

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:04 PM | Comments (2)