Feeddit - a RSS feed for hardcore Diggers

While I was checking out a batch of new blogs the other day, I came across Feeddit which is a pumped up version of the Digg RSS feed - just the ticket if you’re a heavy hardcore Digger whose days are spent digging countless stories and you break out in a cold sweat if you miss the chance to bury the latest Microsoft story.

I subscribe to the Digg RSS feed since RSS is my hard working, never complaining personal researcher so I was immediately interested to see what Feeddit could do to make my working life easier. So I hit the subscribe button on the main Feeddit page and this is what I found out.

Hitting the subscribe button on Feeddit subscribes you to the Feeddit RSS feed which takes you to your feed reader where you can view the Digg posts. So there’s nothing to sign up to, no need to leave your email address anywhere, nothing to pay for. Everything is absolutely free. The feed is the regular Digg feed but with lots of extras thrown in as you can see in the screenshot below. Let’s go through them all:

This is what it looks like in Google Reader. The design may vary slightly in other feed readers.

First, the title of the post takes you directly to the post, NOT the Digg page. So you can read the post right away without wearing out the buttons on your mouse. With the regular Digg feed, it always irritated me that I was taken to the Digg page first and then I had to click again to get to the actual post. Feeddit instead gives you a direct link. This earns it a big thumbs up right away.

Under the description are the number of diggs it currently has and that is directly linked to the digg page if you want to go there to digg it yourself. Likewise, you can also see the number of comments with a direct link to go there, the category the story is listed under with a direct link, the submitter’s name with a link to their profile page and a copy of the page on Dugg Mirror.

Now compare the above Feeddit post to the regular Digg post :

Only one link (which goes to the Digg page). No information on the submitter, or the number of diggs and comments. Which version of the post would you much rather have if time was pressing? I know which one I would much rather have - I’ve just unsubscribed from the regular Digg RSS feed and I am now relying full time on Feeddit.

UPDATE March 21st : who would have thought that one line would cause so much upheaval? The fact that I mentioned that I found Feeddit while “checking out blogs” has prompted countless bloggers to accuse me via email, IM and Twitter of stealing the story idea from them and not properly crediting them.

Just for the record, I didn’t credit anyone because I don’t remember the blog I originally saw it on. Due to the nature of my job as a writer and a blogger, I browse through hundreds of sites and RSS feeds a day and I bookmark hundreds of links for future reference. In that context, it’s impossible to remember later where I found something. Secondly, a blogger can’t “claim” a website for themselves. Feeddit is out there on the web for all to find and one blogger can’t claim sole credit for finding it.

I have never condoned, and will never condone, plagarism and I always do my utmost to credit bloggers and other writers when I am able to.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger and professional freelance writer. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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