Hari's Corner

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Feed aggregators and syndication

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Sat, Nov 12, 2005 at 11:10 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 21:30 IST)

If you're like me and you find your list of "to-visit" sites ever expanding by the day, you would find a desktop feed aggregator a real must-have. It's a great way to get the updates on the latest news, your favourite blogs and forum communities all in one place like a desktop mail client. If you're unfamiliar with syndication, here's a basic introduction to RSS.

There are plenty of free desktop aggregators around. I, for one, use Akregator, which is a KDE desktop feed aggregator. I highly recommend it because it renders the feed summaries in HTML and you can even view the full website without having to open another browser window. For those who prefer Gnome/GTK, Straw is a good option too. Here's a screenshot of Akregator running on my Debian desktop.

Akregator screenshot

Firefox also has a live bookmark feature which you can use to subscribe to websites that provide RSS syndication. Websites which have a feed will display a small icon like this Firefox live bookmark in the bottom-right corner of your browser which you can click to add the feed to your bookmarks. This is a good option for those of you who prefer to use the browser, though I personally find a full-fledged aggregator to be more convenient

On the other side of the fence, if you are a webmaster and your site keeps getting updated on a frequent basis, consider providing RSS/Atom syndication for your users if you haven't already. There's no reason not to and in fact, most of the commonly used blog scripts, forums and web content management systems have this feature built-in to them. If not, it's quite easy to get a plug-in or a hack which would work with your particular system. In most cases, it's quite simple to provide a basic feed for your readers and it can enhance their experience of your site. A small, but thoughtful feature like this would go a long way in bringing back visitors to your website.

2 comment(s)

  1. And if you've got your own website & use more than one computer, I find putting an aggregator on your site to be a handy way of staying current - you can get all your favourite feeds, in your favourite format, from any Internet computer in the world!I use MagpieRSS for this, it works great for me!

    Comment by Dominic (visitor) on Sat, Nov 12, 2005 @ 15:38 IST #
  2. Yes, I didn't mention that, Dominic. Yes, web-based aggregators are also useful in some situations.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sat, Nov 12, 2005 @ 17:31 IST #

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