Well it turns out that Google Reader does allow you to share more than just your shared items. In Google Reader you have another option to "Star" stories. Starred stories also have their own RSS feed which you can make public.
In addition you can sort your feeds using various tags (folders). You can then share these folders as well. Each shared folder will have its own RSS feed. Sharing folders does not give you the ability to self-select the stories but it is one more way to aggregate a bunch of news feeds together.
To share your starred items or tagged folders just go to Settings in Reader and then to the Tags tab. Beside each folder (including Starred Items) there is a little broadcast/rss icon. Just click on that and then click the View Public Page link that will appear next to the icon. This will bring up the public web page which will then have a link to its RSS feed along the right hand side of the window.
Showing posts with label rss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rss. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Google Reader vs. Newsgator Online
On a whim I signed up for Newsgator's online RSS Reader service. I thought it was time to check out other RSS Readers. I was mostly curious as to the features other readers might offer. The one feature that I was looking for was the ability to create multiple new RSS Feeds from items I selected (ala My News Feed to the right).
Sure enough Newsgator has that capability with its News Clipping functionality. I was very excited at first, but the more I used Newsgator the more I pined for the simplicity and reliability (and features) of Google Reader. Here are some of the problems I ran into with Newsgator:
- I found the overall appearance not as pleasing as Google Reader. This is a personal judgement and others may prefer the Newsgator interface
- the News Clipping service feed would only feed 20 items -- the same as Google Reader. And what's worse for me was that the feed did not seem to update as regularly as the Shared Items feed in Google Reader. I like my news feed to be "hot and fresh" so this bothered me
- it turned out that I didn't have a lot of use currently for the ability to do another self selected feed. I spend WAY too much time on the one I have as it is. I admit that sometimes I can't even make time to read some of the items I share because I have to take so much time going through them. Adding one more to the mix would only increase the load and, well, I already have a full-time job.
- Newsgator's interface had bugs! The most annoying of which would not allow me to look at the items in any of my subfolders if all of the items were read. It would default to some other screen. This was really frustrating when I was trying to download my podcasts. It was also slower to refresh feeds and performed slower in general than Google Reader
- Google Reader also has another feature that I have come to enjoy and that is that it will recommend new feeds for you based on what you already have. I know, I know, Total Information Awareness anyone? But I have found a few good new feeds that way and so in that way I appreciate it.
Also, did I say that the Google Reader interface is simpler and easier to look at than Newsgator's?
In short Google Reader is better than Newsgator Online.
Sure enough Newsgator has that capability with its News Clipping functionality. I was very excited at first, but the more I used Newsgator the more I pined for the simplicity and reliability (and features) of Google Reader. Here are some of the problems I ran into with Newsgator:
- I found the overall appearance not as pleasing as Google Reader. This is a personal judgement and others may prefer the Newsgator interface
- the News Clipping service feed would only feed 20 items -- the same as Google Reader. And what's worse for me was that the feed did not seem to update as regularly as the Shared Items feed in Google Reader. I like my news feed to be "hot and fresh" so this bothered me
- it turned out that I didn't have a lot of use currently for the ability to do another self selected feed. I spend WAY too much time on the one I have as it is. I admit that sometimes I can't even make time to read some of the items I share because I have to take so much time going through them. Adding one more to the mix would only increase the load and, well, I already have a full-time job.
- Newsgator's interface had bugs! The most annoying of which would not allow me to look at the items in any of my subfolders if all of the items were read. It would default to some other screen. This was really frustrating when I was trying to download my podcasts. It was also slower to refresh feeds and performed slower in general than Google Reader
- Google Reader also has another feature that I have come to enjoy and that is that it will recommend new feeds for you based on what you already have. I know, I know, Total Information Awareness anyone? But I have found a few good new feeds that way and so in that way I appreciate it.
Also, did I say that the Google Reader interface is simpler and easier to look at than Newsgator's?
In short Google Reader is better than Newsgator Online.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Fun with RSS!
In case you didn't notice I got my news feed working again. For some reason the site that was hosting the feed for me deleted it (?) I went back and signed up again after getting no response to an e-mail requesting support. After I set it back up it worked like gangbusters. The site I use to generate my consolidated news feed is WebRSS. It is a bit klugey and the support seems non-existent but it served its purpose.
The reason I went looking for it in the first place was because of the (are you listening Google?) crappy RSS module in Blogger. The main problem is that it only allows you to display the top 5 items from the feed. That's OK if it is just a single feed with just a few items daily but I was trying to feed the contents of my Google Reader Shared Items into a module. The Blogger module was just not going to do the trick. I looked around on the internet for a way to generate some javascript to display more of the feed, because Blogger does let you plug in JS modules from third parties. I found several that worked, but only partially. WebRSS was the only one that worked for me fully at the time. I will keep an eye on it because I don't trust it completely.
The good news is I found another site that will probably do just as well. I found it while I was trying to figure out how to do a consolidated feed of the podcasts I like. The problem I had was that Google reader was allowing me to consolidate my news into a single feed based on the items I selected to share, which (are you listening Google?) is an AWESOME feature of Google Reader. I found the FeedDigest site which is just what the Doctor ordered. It allows you (after a free sign up) to consolidate multiple feeds into one and will also generate the Javascript (or other methods) needed to embed the consolidated feed into your blog or web page. The only thing that the Google Reader feed has over it is that with Reader you can control your feed manually. With the Podcasts it's not a big deal since there are so much fewer of them.
So as you can see, I love RSS! If you aren't all that familiar with RSS you really should take a look at it. Most sites have RSS feeds nowadays and when you get them all consolidated in a reader like Google's you can check out a lot of your favorite blogs and news sites without as much time spent surfing around. I know there are other online readers besides Google's as well as stand alone (downloadable) RSS readers. I have personally used the Snarfer reader, and although it had some bugs it was generally OK -- and free. I was forced by circumstances beyond my control to migrate to an online reader and picked Google because I already had the blog here. The features of Reader have been a pleasant surprise and have inspired me to inflict this RSS madness (look to the right) on everyone who comes into contact with the Bloggy here.
FEED ME!
The reason I went looking for it in the first place was because of the (are you listening Google?) crappy RSS module in Blogger. The main problem is that it only allows you to display the top 5 items from the feed. That's OK if it is just a single feed with just a few items daily but I was trying to feed the contents of my Google Reader Shared Items into a module. The Blogger module was just not going to do the trick. I looked around on the internet for a way to generate some javascript to display more of the feed, because Blogger does let you plug in JS modules from third parties. I found several that worked, but only partially. WebRSS was the only one that worked for me fully at the time. I will keep an eye on it because I don't trust it completely.
The good news is I found another site that will probably do just as well. I found it while I was trying to figure out how to do a consolidated feed of the podcasts I like. The problem I had was that Google reader was allowing me to consolidate my news into a single feed based on the items I selected to share, which (are you listening Google?) is an AWESOME feature of Google Reader. I found the FeedDigest site which is just what the Doctor ordered. It allows you (after a free sign up) to consolidate multiple feeds into one and will also generate the Javascript (or other methods) needed to embed the consolidated feed into your blog or web page. The only thing that the Google Reader feed has over it is that with Reader you can control your feed manually. With the Podcasts it's not a big deal since there are so much fewer of them.
So as you can see, I love RSS! If you aren't all that familiar with RSS you really should take a look at it. Most sites have RSS feeds nowadays and when you get them all consolidated in a reader like Google's you can check out a lot of your favorite blogs and news sites without as much time spent surfing around. I know there are other online readers besides Google's as well as stand alone (downloadable) RSS readers. I have personally used the Snarfer reader, and although it had some bugs it was generally OK -- and free. I was forced by circumstances beyond my control to migrate to an online reader and picked Google because I already had the blog here. The features of Reader have been a pleasant surprise and have inspired me to inflict this RSS madness (look to the right) on everyone who comes into contact with the Bloggy here.
FEED ME!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
GRRR!
My feed at the right doesn't seem to be updating as it should. Maybe it only updates when I make a new post. I guess I'll find out.
August was really sick over the weekend with an ear infection. He has been better for the last couple of days since we started him on antibiotics.
Anabelle is loving kindergarten. She spent 10 or 15 minutes last night just writing out her letters. We got into numbers somewhat she wrote them out up to 20. I tried to start explaining the decimal system to her but she wasn't having any of that.
Also, our digital camera is broken or else I would have posted some pictures.
August was really sick over the weekend with an ear infection. He has been better for the last couple of days since we started him on antibiotics.
Anabelle is loving kindergarten. She spent 10 or 15 minutes last night just writing out her letters. We got into numbers somewhat she wrote them out up to 20. I tried to start explaining the decimal system to her but she wasn't having any of that.
Also, our digital camera is broken or else I would have posted some pictures.
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