Receive the weekly sampler of posts and "Resource of the Week".
Subscribe »

Enter your
email address:

My Account »


Bookmark and Share

Testimonial?
If you find ResourceShelf useful, please supply a testimonial »








Home > ResourceBlog > Article

« All ResourceBlog Articles

 

Bookmark and Share   Feed

Saturday, 10th November 2007

More Uses for Your IM Client! RSS Headlines with FeedCrier & AIM, MSN Messenger, or Google Talk/Jabber

Recently, we've been posting about a number of tools (aka "bots") to access information using various instant messaging (IM) services. One of our favorites is the BBC NewsFlash that works with AOL IM (AIM), Yahoo IM, and MSN Live Messenger. It delivers 5 news headlines at the top of every hour.

Earlier this week, we posted about Feed Crier which delivers RSS headlines via IM. So, in theory, your IM service becomes an RSS aggregator. It's a interesting idea and potentially powerful mixture. However, contributing editor Pete Weiss reports, some features need a bit more work. Nevertheless, we think it's worthy of your time and attention. For some of you it will serve as an introduction to attention profiling markup language (APML).

FeedCrier: An Overview
by Pete Weiss

Because I use both a IM and RSS clients, the entry concerning Feed Crier interested me. The interactive AIM 'bot recognizes three commands:

SUBSCRIBE
UNSUBSCRIBE
LIST

The LIST command shows your current RSS subscription AND ALSO creates a temporary web page URL returned as part of the list output. You can then copy that (generally, don't automatically click on IM'd ) URL into your browser to manage your subscriptions (in a way similar to the first two commands).

When subscribing to an RSS feed, Feed Crier immediately shows the (up to ?) 10 most current entries, but that may not happen immediately -- there is some time lag. Also, if you are logged off of AIM and return after your RSS feeds have updated, you may not get notified of the updates that occurred during your absence.

An interesting under-the-covers feature of Feed Crier is something called Attention Profile. This from the linked web page:

Ability to profile your choices ("attention profiling markup language" APML)

What is an attention profile?

Feed Crier can create a profile of the topics you're most interested in. We've got some tricks planned for using this profile to help you manage your alert volume. If you have an attention profile, we'll let you export it as an APML file for use on other sites that support attention profiles. If you choose to create an attention profile, your list of feeds will be visible to Engagd, a service we use to manage your attention profile. Your IM screen name won't be provided to them, and either will any personally identifying information. The contents of your feeds and the URLs of those feeds will be available to them. [...]

All in all, an interesting application of conversion of RSS to IM, but if your main interest is following updates to RSS feeds, then perhaps a standalone workstation application that give you more ability to control the timing and presentation of updates would be better for you.

Notes: Feed Crier Works with
+ AOL Instant Messenger
+ MSN Live Messenger (beta)
+ Google Talk, Jabber

A bookmarklet makes adding sites a one-click operation.


Category:

Views: 878




blog comments powered by Disqus

« All ResourceBlog Articles

 

Read about the FreePint FamilyFreePint Family

A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »


FeedLatest Family Articles:


Click to view the article Quilting big data threads
Thursday, 24th May 2012

Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.


Click to view the article The fallacy of information overload
Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?


Click to view the article Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure?
Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.


Click to view the article Newsdesk: tracking millions of pieces of information a day
Tuesday, 22nd May 2012

What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?


Click to view the article Alacra Compliance adds managerial oversight
Tuesday, 22nd May 2012

Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).


All Family Articles »
Family Articles by Category »


Tell us what you're working on,
and we'll talk to you about how FreePint can help »


FreePint Family Testimonials

"Fabulous resource to learn of unique tools and insights. Very useful." Manager, Futures and Forecasting, Virginia, USA

More testimonials »






Subscribe

Subscribe to the ResourceShelf Newsletter and receive the weekly sampler of posts and Resource of the Week.

Find out more »

ResourceShelf sponsored by:

Article Categories

All Article Categories »

Archive

All Archives »