MakeUseOf Directory » feeds

Q-Sensei FeedBooster: An RSS Feed Reader Offering Customizable Search Options

Umar — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:01:10 +0000

RSS feeds let you stay in touch with the latest updates on your favorite websites. But not all RSS readers let you conveniently do this. Often readers clutter RSS feeds and make it difficult for you to find what you are looking for. An exception to this is a web service called Q-Sensei FeedBooster.

Q-Sensei FeedBooster is a web service completely free to use. The site acts as a reader for your RSS feeds. After creating an account on the site you start adding your RSS feeds by typing the URLs or by importing them from your Google Reader account. Entries from your feeds are then organized into blocks that appear on your dashboard and these blocks take you to the original webpage of a feed entry. Blocks also offer sharing buttons to share the entries on social networks.

Filtering options available on the left and top let you easily filter feeds by date, tag, and author. You can use these options to customize the feed entries shown and find exactly the entries that interest you.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you read RSS feeds.
Organizes feed entries into neat blocks.
Blocks provide sharing options.
Filtration of feeds is customizable.
Similar tools: Newsblur, FeedLooks, Prldr, Plusmo, Bloglovin, MailOnFeed, Viigo and ToRSS.
Also read related articles:

Check out Q-Sensei FeedBooster @ www.feeds.qsensei.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Subjot: See Friends’ Posts On Selected Subjects

TehseenBaweja — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:01:09 +0000

There is no denying the fact that social networks can be overwhelming with thousands of posts coming up every day. Subjot is a free tool that acts as a filter by letting you read only posts that interest you.

To start, sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account. Then choose some of your favorite subjects that you want to follow. Now every time you log in to Subjot, you will only view posts from your friends that relate to your specified subjects. You can comment on those posts, follow a specific user, view their profile, jot down your own thoughts and tag them with a particular subject. You can also choose to receive instant, daily or weekly email notifications.

Features:

Filters your social feeds by focusing on your favorite subjects.
Allows you to follow people with same interests.
Share your thoughts about a subject and post to Twitter and Facebook.
Receive email notifications.

Visit Subjot @ www.subjot.com

ChimpFeedr: A Web App To Mash Up RSS Feeds

MOin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:01:05 +0000

Saving multiple RSS links in your feed reader can be a bit inconvenient. Here to offer a solution by providing you a single RSS link for all your feeds is a web service called Chimp Feedr.

Chimp Feedr is a web service that mashes your RSS feeds together. The site does not ask you to create any accounts. All you have to do is keep entering the URLs of the RSS feeds that you want merged. When you are done you can click on the “Chomp Chomp!” button, name the new feed, and obtain its URL.

The new feed includes entries from all the feeds you entered sorted according to time. You can now add this feed to your RSS reader.

Features:

A user friendly web service.
Lets you mash-up RSS feeds.
Places no limits on number of feeds you can merge.
Lets you name resultant feed.
Also read related articles: 14 “OTHER” Ways to Use RSS Feeds.

Check out ChimpFeedr @ www.chimpfeedr.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Mishra Reader: Google Reader Client Based On Metro UI

Israel Nicolas — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:01:35 +0000

We all had good impressions about the Metro UI which Microsoft introduced for their Windows 7 Phone and the upcoming Windows 8, and there are already some desktop applications that are following the design philosophy. Mishra Reader is a desktop Google Reader client that combines the sleek animations and smooth transitions of Metro, with the depth and functionality of a standalone RSS client.

Once you have installed Mishra Reader, the app will ask you to log in with your Google account details to start fetching your feed. Here you can check out your unread items where you can browse through your feed categories. Clicking an article will open a new window where you can read its full version. You can also go straight to the feed’s website by clicking the browser icon within the feed navigation. Mishra Reader also lives on your system tray to fetch the latest unread items, perfect if you want to monitor your feed.

Mishra Reader is a nice example of a useful Metro UI desktop app. This program is also great if you like a dark interface for your desktop apps.

Features

Made from Windows presentation foundation.
Google Reader client for Windows.
Lives on the system tray.
Smooth animations and sleek transitions.
Metro-UI Google reader.
Similar Tools: Webreader, Desktop Google Reader, and Gruml.

Check out Mishra Reader @ www.mishrareader.codeplex.com

FeedDude: Create An RSS Feed For Any Page Online

Israel Nicolas — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:01:05 +0000

If you are looking to generate quick RSS feeds for your website, then there is no shorter way to do it than Feed Dude. This tool lets you create RSS files for any website which you can load into RSS readers or as a plugin to catch content from other websites.

Feed Dude is pretty basic as you only need to enter the full URL of the blog or website then click ‘Get RSS’. Then a direct download link to the RSS file will be ready for you. This is pretty useful if you want to follow and hook content from a website but you do not have an RSS feed available.

This easy-to-use app is completely free for personal use. However, a $9.99/month subscription allows you to use the service for commercial purposes.

Features:

Quick and easy to use.
Free for personal use.
Generate RSS feeds from any website.
One-click download of RSS feed.
Similar Tools: Feedbeater, Rapidfeeds, or how about reading How To Create RSS Feed Bundle On Google Reader.

Check out Feed Dude @ www.feeddude.com

DownTweet: Create Multiple Custom Twitter Feeds & View Them All On A Single Webpage

MOin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:01:35 +0000

Twitter’s native interface has a lot of room for improvement. Thankfully there are various Twitter clients with better interfaces which make it easier to follow friends, stay updated with celebrities, and read news. One such site that offers Twitter users an alternative, better interface is DownTweet.

DownTweet is a website that is absolutely free to use. You start by signing into the site using your Twitter account. On the main page, you will then find 4 panes in total. The far right pane is where your default Twitter feed is, labeled “My Twitter Feed”.

The center two panes are for you to customize. You can create custom feeds and drag them into the center panes to follow whatever interests you. Alternatively you can drag the pre-formed feeds located on the far left pane.

Each one of the feed boxes contains a pencil icon in the top right that lets you edit the usernames for that category. Using this icon you can quickly add or remove the Twitter users a feed box is following.

DownTweet can also be embedded into your website or blog. For the embeddable widget you can specify the dimensions and colors.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Provides an alternative interface to Twitter.
Lets you create custom feeds.
Displays 4 Twitter customizable Twitter feeds in addition to your default feed.
Provides an embeddable widget that can be customized.
Similar tools: TweetAlarm, TwitterFeed and Reader2Twitter.

Check out DownTweet @ www.downtweet.com (by MOin from ThumbPress)

FeedsAPI: Get Articles In A Feed To Be Expanded To Full View

MOin — Tue, 17 May 2011 03:01:11 +0000

To stay in touch with your favorite websites, the best method is to subscribe to its RSS feed. But the feed view often requires you to click a bunch of links before you can read the text. Here to help you with this matter is FeedsAPI.

FeedsAPI is a free web service that can convert feeds into “all text” forms. “All text” does not imply “simple text” – the pictures and formatting is still there. FeedsAPI only expands all articles within a feed, displaying them in full.

When you have finished reading one article, the next one automatically begins since it is located underneath it. This simple function can be helpful for reading all the posts without clicking anything. Additionally FeedsAPI can assist you in content extraction and information retrieval by letting you read the site’s content without having to view its ads or other webpage elements.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Turns website feeds into all-text frms.
Helps read feed articles without clicking anything.
Assists content extraction and information.
Similar tools: FullTextRSSFeed, FullFeeds, FiveFilter and Wizardrss.
Also read related articles:

Check out FeedsAPI @ www.feedsapi.com (by MOin from ThumbPress)

RSS Search Engine: Search RSS Feeds On Any Topic

TehseenBaweja — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:01:33 +0000

Some of us love RSS feeds and wouldn’t read otherwise. RSS Search Engine lets you search for feeds across the web based on either topics, from a particular site, or a combination of both. You can also search using categories like “tech news” and use popular search engine options like “allintitle” or “inurl”.

One of the best features of the tool is the ability to display a feed inline right on the results page. Moreover, you can click on the actual link to read the full feed or click on the subscribe button to get that feed regularly in your favorite reader. The interface is dead simple and the functionality is a blessing when it comes to searching for content.

Features:

Search for RSS feeds across the web.
Search using topic or category.
Use common search operators.
No registration required.
Similar tools: Ofelio.

Visit RSS Search Engine @ www.ctrlq.org [by Tehseen from Ijaar]

PressJack: Easily Convert RSS Feeds To Digital Magazines

TehseenBaweja — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:01:17 +0000

FlipBoard, the iPad app that turns your content into a magazine style display, is all the rage these days. PressJack is a different app that brings this concept from the iPad to your browser. Once you download the free PressJack software, you can create 5 digital magazines per month by simply entering the URL of desired RSS feeds.

The magazine can then be opened in any browser, and read like an actual print magazine with the ability to flip pages with a single click and scrolling down to display additional content. The reading experience is a hundred times better than reading in an RSS feed reader or your regular browser session.

Features:

Rss to magazine conversion tool.
A rich digital magazine layout yields increased readership.
Publish 5 magazines for free each month.
Users can search and zoom content.
Content updates automatically based on feeds.

Visit PressJack @ www.pressjack.com [Via TheNextWeb]

Super Google Reader: Read Your Google Reader RSS Feeds In Full Form [Chrome]

MOin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:01:45 +0000

Google Reader, while a very useful service, could use some improvements to its interface. If you are looking for a better way to read your feeds within Google Reader while keeping the basic interface unchanged, check out Super Google Reader. It is a browser extension for Google Chrome. It provides readable content or iFraming of feed entries. The extension lets you read RSS feeds full form and offers it in 3 readable views: directly from the source feed, an entry link in an iFrame, and original feed entry. The extension’s options are built transparently into Google Reader and can be accessed through Reader’s options.

Features:

A user-friendly browse extension.
Works with Google Chrome.
Provides readable content or iFraming of feed entries in Google reader.
Provides 3 modes for viewing an entry.
Supports keyboard shortcuts.
Similar tools: FullFeeds, FiveFilter, Wizardrss, Webreader, Reader2Twitter, FeedSquares and MobileRSS.
Also read related articles:
19 Tools and Tips to improve Google Reader
3 Ways To Use Google Reader As An Online Archive
How To Surf Feeds with Google Reader Productively

Check out Super Google Reader @ chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/khbjahpecnkenngkidhioicnfpakihgo# (by MOin from ThumbPress)