What I like most about the site is how it presents content. Sometimes, browsing through an RSS reader becomes old and boring, especially when much of the content is text-based. With Spectives, you can easily get a snapshot of the content recently published, allowing you to create your own collections or view what others have created. A traditional RSS feed is also available for these pages, making it easy to share and follow what others like through another reader.

One of the other major benefits that I find interesting is how sites like this could change the way the average person stays updated with their favorite sites. Due to the fact that collections can be created, you could easily create a “collection” for your site, providing a link for others to stay up-to-date with your site. As long as you insert images into your content, it’ll maintain a complete look. Not only this, but the site is well-designed and doesn’t require much time to set up.

The Ideas for Spectives

Creating an account through the site gives you more options, specifically the ability to create collections through tabs, displayed at the top of the page, and your own collections at spectives.com/yourcollection. There really aren’t a ton of options beyond being able to save your collections, but there really is no need for them.

An introductory video (lasting a minute) has been embedded below.

The site will be posting updates through their Twitter profile @spectives. Site found via The Next Web.

People often write articles about how these two are dead, and is often disputed, as there are still millions of people blogging, with new bloggers getting into the space every day.

Why Blogging is Not Dead

Blogging will continue to grow in popularity. I simply don’t see a reason why people will stop blogging, unless severe restrictions are set on everyone and what they are allowed to say online. This would be extremely hard to control, as it is hard enough to discover who writes and creates content online as it is. People will always have an opinion, and the only place they can share it other than on the web is through face-to-face communication, unless of course they are able to get a television deal or work in traditional media – newspapers and magazines.

By the time blogging reaches its height, new methods of communicating, as stated in another post, will emerge, and help move the market forward. Innovation and change will help move blogging forward, more than anything else. Blogging has become blurred in the past, but we now have a fairly precise definition of what it is.

One of the reasons people think blogging is dead is due to the fact that a good portion of the Internet-using population still hasn’t caught onto blogging or reading blogs. While somewhat true, as Internet usage continues to increase, more people will discover and subscribe to blogs.

RSS is still a technology that needs more promotion – only a small percentage of web users know how to properly utilize it and stay updated with their favorite sites.

The potential of blogging will continue to be unlimited. In developing markets, there will be untapped niches, and as new technologies are introduced, there will be a renewed demand for blogs that cover these topics

Why Podcasting is Not Dead

Podcasting is similar to RSS in how it is used. Typically created by independent publishers, it can be hard to find new, but innovative podcasts. Usually, they’ll be found on iTunes or their own sites, but often, they are hard to find.

For the reason that people think blogs aren’t professional, they also think podcasts can’t be, either. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Many television programs offer expanded content through podcasts, including full-length shows.

From the blogging perspective, podcasting can add great value to your site. You’ll have many more avenues to go down should you choose this method. There is no doubt that podcasting can be extremely profitable, resulting in returns of 80% or more if you optimize your workflow and are able to promote your podcast properly.

Conclusion

By no means are podcasting nor blogging dead. Instead, they will both continue to grow, no matter what others say. Yes, the leaders will maintain their relative position, but there will always be new markets that can be tapped into.

Blogging can help launch a platform for you and your brand. You’ll be able to expand into podcasting, video, and even print-based media should you want to evolve your brand to an even higher level.

Throughout the age of advertising-supported content on the web, problems have exited. For one, as a content producer or publisher (blogger), you either have to settle for quality or quantity, and there really is no in-between. You either settle for all the advertisers that come your way, opening the flood gates to sidebar advertising, in-post advertising, feed advertising, header advertising, and more, or you side with one or two that are able to support and fund your operation.

Google purchased FeedBurner for a reason, and one reason only: to expand the number of people that they can place ads in front of. Where there are bloggers, there is open space and markets for ads to fall upon.

What I See Happening

As the economy slumps around the world and domestically, Google, and literally every other company has to make ends meet, extending their reach or changing their traditional ways of doing business. In the case of Google, they’re trying to distribute more ads through more sources than ever before. First in Image Search, then the admin area of Blogger (more recently), and now, even more than before, through feeds/RSS.

Google could choose to monetize their Google Reader service on their own, placing links in-between the columns or between posts, but I don’t think most content producers and bloggers would feel that as acceptable, when they don’t see any return on those ads. Instead, they gave the ability to place ads in their content, meaning anyone that subscribes to their feed sees the ads.

Initially, there were quite a few limitations, especially in FeedBurner “pre-Google.” You could only place ads at the top or bottom of your content, sometimes only one per post. This was acceptable, until now.

The Direction of Feed Advertising

Google has begun allowing, through the use of the content distributor/creator, the ability to place more than one ad, and often, multiple ads right next to each other, similar to sidebar feeds. Now, there is nothing wrong with making some money through your blog to support advertising costs, marketing, staff, hosting, and making a living for yourself, but it tarnishes your brand and the brand of those who advertise in these areas.

Often, on niche-specific sites, you’ll find that the advertisers are fairly similar, sometimes competing. Who do I choose? Which advertisement is more appealing, and which one (likely) paid more for the slot? Is this what I should be asking myself when I visit these sites or read their RSS feed?

Alternately, there should be a focused, defined set of advertisers that stick with your brand for a longer time (two months or more) and can afford a larger advertising budget. Yes, this isn’t a real-world case, but there are certainly advertising companies and blogs that are able to operate on this model.

Fusion Ads and The Deck are two premier advertising networks that focus on this. Most (if not all) of their advertisers and sponsors are listed on the main page, and only one or two ads are served on each page, making the ads really unobtrusive, elegant, and focused. The message behind the ads is more creative and there is purpose. You are led to click on the ads because they are relevant to the site and likely appeal to you.

On the larger scale, Google, Yahoo, or any other ad network wouldn’t be able to do this for all their clients. Thousands join every day, and advertisers need the ability to change their targets and ad formats on a daily basis.

The publisher (again, the blogger) places multiple ads on the site, seeing the income opportunities, but avoiding the greater cost of placing those ads there, and associating with the “hundreds” of companies on the site.

Conclusion

Much of what I see happening coincides with the horrors that have come with the spread to more mobile, easily digested formats, including RSS, Twitter, and social media. There is no way to avoid the circle of “some space here, let’s get another advertiser” that continues.

When I say this, I am not attacking or trying to point out any single blogs/blog owners, as it can simply be a decision that you have to make, as a result of costs related to your blog. Inspiration can sometimes come out of the newfound income, and this is good in the long-term. But, a line will soon need to be drawn where advertisements are placed and the real affects this can have on your image.

Google Reader Main View (Changes)

This is what the Google Reader post states: “On the Reader team, we know that the old adage “change is good” isn’t always true. Sometimes, change is just change. In this case, we hope that these decisions both improve your Reader experience today, and pave the way for additional improvements down the line. ”  In other words, there is no reversing the change(s), and you will need to adapt to them quickly, or else change feed readers (if you find the new format completely distasteful).

The New Features and Improvements

Many of the new changes aren’t as obvious at first, but if you are familiar with the service, you might appreciate them.  First of all, your friends’ items, found within the “Friends’ Shared Items” area has grown up, with its own section.  You will be able to more easily manage settings through here, as well as view images of your friends (avatars).

Space saving has also been implemented, meaning that you can collapse each of the areas of the navigation area.  Let’s say you don’t want to view the “Your Subscriptions” or “Subscriptions” boxes.  Now, you’ll be able to click the minimize button, and they’ll instantly be minimized to present an even cleaner-looking view.

Often, if you don’t view the recent posts daily, after a couple days, your unread count will quickly add up.  You now have the ability to turn off unread counts for each section of the navigation area independently.  Items with unread items will appear as bold, and unless you hover over the item, you won’t know how many unread posts there are.

Feed Bundles are collections of feeds related to select topics, and was originally added last year.  This time around, there is an expanded collection of subjects and topics, using auto feed discovery based on an algorithm that has been set up (the Google Reader team no longer manually selects feeds for each group).  Discovering and adding new feeds is easier using this feature as well as the rearranged buttons on the main page.

Other Changes

• The “Refresh” link is now at the top of each feed’s main page (listed under the title in the bar containing “Mark all as read” and “Feed settings…”) or by clicking the world “Subscriptions” in the sidebar, which will refresh all feeds.
• The “Show all / updated” controls are now in the Subscriptions options menu.
• The “Add subscription” button has been moved from the (rather hidden middle) to the prominent location at the top of the page.

Thoughts

The new interface is a welcome change (at least for me) as it brings the Mail and Reader service in line in terms of functionality and looks.  However, I also noticed that the back-end settings panels are still using the previous color scheme and rounded corners.

What does the development team mean by “additional improvements”?  It is likely that ads will be implemented to the right side of feeds when you are in individual/expanded post view, or in the sidebar in the space below subscriptions.  These changes will likely cause some disruption in the first few days, but end up being accepted much like other changes taking place – in which ads are placed in areas previously unseen.

It is welcome to see new changes and development in the web application, as translation into any language and tags/notes were recently added.

What are your thoughts of the new features and interface of Google Reader?

Let’s Get This Straight

For this post, I am referring to the email subscription that it taken directly from the content on your site, in which the feed is sent to your subscribers as a daily digest.  It is not creating an additional newsletter or promotional material.

The Benefits

There are many benefits of offering an email subscription to your readers.

Typically, people want to be able to consume content whenever they have time.  There is no better way than having copies of your content, whether in the form of podcasts, posts, and so on directly in their inbox, reader for reference whenever they have it open.  While feed readers serve a similar purpose, most emails come with attachments, allowing you to directly save the attachments to your computer, so you can view the video, podcast, etc. even if you are working offline.

1. You are given more control over how your readers interact with the content.  You can customize who the emails are sent from, so it can be branded, rather than from a service.
2. You can personally communicate more effectively with the people that have subscribed to your feed through email.
3. Deliver your feed/new content to suit your general audience, rather than blog posts, which are published through feed shortly after hitting the publish button (date-specific).
4. It’ll be easier to promote posts than through RSS-only subscriptions.  
5. What is RSS?  Some people still don’t know what RSS is and what it does, nor do they know how to stay up-to-date with feeds, so email appears to be the obvious choice.
6. Some people will want multiple choices, so providing an email subscription will increase your subscribers.  Some devoted readers will even subscribe through both formats!

Services and Getting Started

While many people would first opt for a professional service for promoting their RSS subscription, you can start for free.  Many people are already connected through FeedBurner, which makes syndicating your content much easier than through multiple sources, and can also be used for email subscriptions.

First, you’ll want to log into your FeedBurner account, then click on the feed title that you want to allow email subscriptions for.  Next, click the “Publicize” tab, then “Email Subscriptions” in the sidebar services.  

You can choose FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, and Rmail (appears to be down) as your feed-via-email service provider.  Most people should feel comfortable using the default FeedBurner delivery method.  

Once you have clicked the Activate button, you will have to link the Subscription Form Code to your site, making it easier for readers to subscribe through this method.  You can choose your language and the blog platform (TypePad or Blogger) to place widget on your blog.  Otherwise, you should use the HTML code – copy and paste this into your template or through a sidebar widget.  In addition, you can choose whether it should be a subscription link code or a form.

The last remaining option is to send an email whenever people unsubscribe, which helps you manage and connect with people who may have unsubscribed from your feed.

Other Services

• Aweber – This service is targeted towards businesses who want to publish an additional “newsletter” to their customers who have subscribed, and starts at $19 per month.
• Other services – nearly al email marketing services will allow you to send your feeds as a message (even if they require you to export the contents).

When you want to find the best way to increase your subscriber count (for everything it’s worth), there are some key areas that you need to be looking at.  Otherwise, you’ll continue hovering at the low levels that you have since you started your blog.

1. Your Feed Doesn’t Work

On a regular basis, make sure that people can subscribe to your blog through their RSS reader.  If no posts are syndicated to your feed address, people won’t be able to read your content, resulting in lower numbers if you happen to be tracking your subscriber levels through FeedBurner or other services.

Sometimes the fix is as easy as using a redirection service, although it may involve completely coding the RSS feed (although tutorials are available).  If you are using a popular blog system, most have multiple formats (ATOM and RSS, at a minimum) available for readers to subscribe to.

2. You Don’t Promote Your Feed

Contrary to what you are initially lead to believe, people don’t automatically subscribe to your blog if they find a single piece of content interesting.  It takes much more than that – you need to heavily promote your feed on your blog and elsewhere. 

Even though you aren’t directly linking to your feed in comments you leave on other blogs, I often look at comments as an opportunity to get people to contemplate whether subscribing is right for them.  Commenting on other blogs indicates that you want to share a relationship with that blogger and their readers – they then feel more inclined to subscribe to your feed.

You should prominently place a link, RSS image, and other forms of promotion throughout your blog – in your sidebar and below/above posts, preferably, but a link in the header and footer, as well as a separate “Subscribe” page will surely help you increase your subscriber base even faster.

3. You Can’t Be Taken Seriously

Take a look back at your posting frequency.  If your blog has an abnormally high (or low) number of posts per week/month, you should focus on creating a balance that people will want to subscribe to.  Multi-author blogs that have upwards of twenty posts per day published can’t equate in subscriber counts, as some unsubscribe due to the basic fact that you don’t have enough time to read all those new posts.  On the other hand, you can’t have an “empty” appearing blog, or readers will unsubscribe due to the lack of new content.

The essential fact – you need to run a professional site.

4. Your Theme and Overall Message Isn’t Appealing

Readers want to connect with you – share your thoughts and be able to comment on posts that are delivered to their feed readers.  If you can’t do this, you’re out of luck when it comes to increasing subscribers.  You need to have a complete set of content, blog theme, overall message/topic, and the community behind your blog or it’ll be easy for people to choose a “competing” site’s subscription options versus yours, which is extremely limited, with no clear objectives.

Conclusion

Consider your readers as a reflection of yourself.  If you can’t step back from your site and analyze the valuable aspects, you will never be able to effectively grow your subscriber base.  Put yourself in someone’s shoes that has never visited your blog – does something prevent them from subscribing?  The key to finding your tipping point is finding what is wrong and fixing/improving it.

This post provides several ways to manage, maintain, and organize your feeds, as well as ways to create feeds for any website.

Manually Installing or Configuring Feeds on Popular Blog Software

Blogger

To redirect a feed, go into the Settings | Site Feed tab of your blog, then input your FeedBurner or other feed URL into the text box next to the “Feed Direction” area.  Finally, click Save Settings and your content/RSS feed will be redirected from your Blogger address to the one you have inserted.

You are also able to provide different configurations of your feed under this tab, including Full, Short, or No feeds for blog posts, blog comments, and per-post comment feeds.  These are found by selecting the Advanced Mode, in which you may also input a feed footer.

Adding a Feed to Blogger (Template Tags):

To add a feed to the sidebar or any other location of your site, refer to this page in the Blogger Help area.

Full Site Feed Address:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Comments-only Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss

Label-specific Site Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/-/labelname
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss/-/labelname

Individual Post Comment Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/postId/comments/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/postId/comments/default?alt=rss

Drupal

Setting up Drupal feeds is easy with this guide on how to migrate your content to FeedBurner for redirection.

WordPress

Instructions for setting up, changing addresses, and managing your WordPress feeds can be found within the WordPress Codex.

Default WordPress Feeds:

RDF/RSS 1.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/rdf/[/sourcecode]
RSS 0.92 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/rss/[/sourcecode]
RSS 2.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/[/sourcecode]
Atom feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/atom/[/sourcecode]
Comments RSS 2.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/comments/feed/[/sourcecode]

Feed URL Locations:

Files

http://example.com/wp-rss.php

http://example.com/wp-rss2.php

http://example.com/wp-rdf.php

http://example.com/wp-atom.php

Addresses

http://example.com/?feed=rss

http://example.com/?feed=rss2

http://example.com/?feed=rdf

http://example.com/?feed=atom

Custom Permalink Addresses

http://example.com/?feed=rss

http://example.com/?feed=rss2

http://example.com/?feed=rdf

http://example.com/?feed=atom

Custom Category Feed Addresses

http://example.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=42
or

http://example.com/category/categoryname/feed

Movable Type

RSS Template guides for Movable Type can be found here.

20+ Services and Pieces of Software for Converting HTML/Content to RSS Feeds

Services that require a subscription or had websites that appeared to be promoting the product as trial ware were not added to the list.  These services and products can be used for free or with an account.

1. Feed 43 (Feed For Free) – Allows you to convert any web page to an RSS feed on the fly.  Feeds created by the service are supported in several popular browsers, and there are also paid options available for creating paid feeds and taking advantage of more features.  As an account is required to use the service, it may be worthwhile to note that the paid services ($29, $49, $89/year) support an increased feed update interval, don’t have a ‘Delivered by Feed43 service” tagline, support a higher number of news items per feed, and have a higher search pattern complexity.

The procedure of setting up a feed is quite simple:

1. Find a web page with the content that interests you.
2. Create a new feed with your account, which will point to that web page.
3. Define search patterns and output templates in feed parameters for this feed, and get the link to your feed.
4. Subscribe to this feed or share it with others.
5. You can also protect the feed with a password.

2. Dapper – (The Data Mapper) allows you to get any content from the web, providing more traffic to your website by licensing and distributing your content.  it allows you to create a content feed from any website, then convert it to a Dapp XML, RSS Feed, Google gadget, Netvibes Module, Google Map, iCalendar, or Image Loop.  You can even take content from other RSS feeds to convert it into those formats.  The main benefit of creating a Dapp is that you can collect sample pages, content, and save feeds for viewing later.  View a video demo of how to create an RSS feed using the service.

3. Feed Generate – This site generates RSS feeds for any URL with text links.  It claims it is perfect for online stores that cannot generate RSS feeds for new items.  One of the only caveats of the service is that it is ad-supported, otherwise it is $8.95 a month (quite a hefty price) for a simple service.

4. FeedFire – For free, FeedFire allows you to generate feeds for any site without any technical knowledge.  It can convert any website into a fully formed and coded RSS feed.  Requires a registration to begin creating feeds.

5. Feedity – Enables anyone to create an RSS feed for any website for free.  You can track website changes in real-time, pull content for mashups, publish feeds on your website, and combine and aggregate multiple RSS feeds.  An API is coming soon and several features have recently been added to the service (Blog).  Plans range from free (w/ or w/o account) to Premium ($39/year) to Pro ($369/year) with more feeds, items per feeds, no ads, an increased feed update interval, feed aggregation, and redundancy.  6. Feedwhip – “The easiest way to create RSS feeds and get email updates for your favorite web sites.”  No configuration is required – simply input the website address that you want to convert into an RSS feed.  You can set specific times of the day to check for updates, filter out particular words or phrases, filter objectionable content, and generate a list of all the changes to a website for the past week.  You may also create an account to manage your feeds.

7. FeedYes – Automatically generates feeds for any website on the web.  You must register and log in if you want to manually create feeds or save them.  FeedYes will work with nearly any website, except those that are built in frames, Flash, or using link text instead of contextual text.

8. Ponyfish RSS Feed Builder – This service allows you to convert any site into an RSS feed.  You simple point input a website address into the form, then follow a few steps to create a feed.  Again, a variety of plans are available, ranging from free (w/ or w/o account) to Platinum at $60/year.

9. RapidFeeds – Create RSS feeds, publish, import, and manage existing ones, update and schedule your feeds, broadcast your thoughts, and start podcasting with Rapid Feeds.  There are many additional features, which would create a long list.  To keep it shorter, you can also add a button so others can re-syndicate your feed, re-syndicate and display RSS and Atom feeds of your choice on your own website, and password protect your private and paid feeds.  Read their blog for updates.

10. RSS To JavaScript – This tool allows you to republish your feed (RSS, RDF, or Atom) into any webpage, blog,or content management system.  Various features include first time visitors, site news, latest updates/changes, and user registration for your feeds.  There is also a tool to style the page/feed.

11. RSSPECT – This tool makes syndication and RSS easy.  They offer three kinds of feeds, so you can add a feed to anything you find online.  No ads appear on any feeds, and more than half a million RSS entries have been managed by the service to date.  A premium account is available for $2/month, providing a higher feed limit, more frequent automatic updates, and full customization.

12. Feed Commander – A small tool to create a free RSS feed “in as little as 90 seconds.”  You receive complete control over the RSS feed you display on your website and it is fully configurable.  Two version of the tool are available – free and paid, but the free version requires a link back to their website at the footer of each post.

13. RSS Viewer – A tool that simplifies the process of creating an RSS feed.  You can manage and view RSS feeds or combine up to five of your favorite sites into one feed.  The main negative aspect of the service is that it doesn’t allow you to use your own feeds (that I am aware of), instead major news sites.

14. FeedPublish - Create your own RSS feed – update and distribute as many feeds as you’d like.  The service is completely free, but requires an account.  You can add channels and items, track statistics, and customize your feed using the powerful features.  There is absolutely no software to download, as your feed is managed online.

15. CoffeeCup RSS News Flash – A trial-ware program (21 day trial, then $34.00 | Vista, XP, Media Center only) allows you to add your news to your website or news from other sites using Flash.  You can add links to other pages, save space while improving the look of your site, and add styles to the feeds.  

16. RSSxl – A not-so-slick tool to generate an RSS 2.0 feed from nearly any webpage.  The interface may not be the most advanced and eye pleasing, but does the job, although you may not use it for commercial use and you must also agree to a long list of terms (mostly standard).

17. Ice Rocket RSS Builder – The IceRocket RSS Builder allows you to easily create RSS feeds for websites, making it easy to add topics, links, and content, then publish the feed to your web server with a single click.  Free, but requires registration.

18. Web2RSS – Turn nearly any page into an RSS feed, and receive updates from the website, no matter how it is published.  Using Regular Expressions, you can make the feed even more precise, otherwise this is a simple tool to use, considering that the main page only consists of two main steps.19. WebRSS – A tool that allows you to quickly track, market, and create RSS feeds for free.  Other services on the website include the ability to place any feed and convert it to display fresh content on your website or blog, or host any RSS feed on your personalized start page for free.

The site is fairly clean and organized, and makes the process simple to create a new feed.  It even markets it to the major ping servers and more.  Account required for managing feeds.

• Create RSS feeds, import, and manage existing feeds.
• Track your RSS feed distribution by day, week, and month.
• Validate your feed.
• Display any RSS or Atom feeds on your website or blog.
• Convert RSS feeds to Javascript, PHP, ASP, or HTML.
• Customize colors of RSS wrappers.
• Display weather feeds, news feeds, affiliate feeds, and more on your website.
• Create your own hosted start page with a personalized web address.
• Add any feed to this page.
• Use WebRSS to customize how the feeds are displayed on this page.
• Show only the feeds you want to display and share your feeds with others.

20. Fedafi Online RSS Feed Builder – Easily create a RSS 2.0 feed by completing the form on the website, and place the .xml file on your server or website.

As always, it is important to remember the leader in feed distribution, FeedBurner, which allows you to easily distribute your feed even if you decide to move your blog and your RSS feed URL, as well as provides feed subscription tools and tracking.  However, it requires a defined RSS feed to be created on your server/website.

Conclusion

While these are services to convert and distribute content from your site to an RSS/Atom feed, they are basic solutions if your site requires a feed to syndicate your content.  It is more beneficial to properly set up an RSS feed (nearly all major blog systems have a system built-in) for readers to subscribe.  However, many of these are beneficial for use with sites you wish to create an alternative feed for (keeping track of changes to shopping websites, for example).  

Are there any other services that you have come across that complete this task?

These tools are all highly recommended to check out if you are a blogger or simply want to keep up-to-date with your favorite websites.  In other words, all plugins associated with reading recently updated content or creating feeds has been showcased in this post.  Add-ons are not in any particular order, and images can be clicked on for a full-size preview.

Some of the best readers in this list can serve as off-line readers, especially as alternatives to online readers such as Google Reader and others.

Experimental add-ons are for advanced users and caution should be taken when installing or using these, as they have not been tested by an editor.  You must login to access these add-ons.

Note: It is recommended that you stick with plugins that are compatible with your browser version, either 2 or 3, or the most recent version of the plugin.

50+ Tools for Managing, Reading, Subscribing, or Collaborating Links/Stories with Others

1. DapperFox is an extension that adds a small icon next to the RSS icon in the browser.  Whenever you visit a website, the extension will show you RSS feeds that others have created, as well as create a new feed to share with the community – for sites that do not have its own RSS feed, or doesn’t meet your needs.

The site recommends creating an RSS feed for your wall at Facebook, for any search at YouTube, for your town’s newspaper, and more.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

2. rssPlayPen allows you to interact with your feeds while browsing.  You can drag and drop RSS, Atom, XML, and podcast links and play or view them instantly.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, Not Firefox 3.0
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

3. RSS Validator is an add-on that validates a page using the W3C RSS validator.  It allows you to right click on the page or go to the Tools menu to validate the feed, with results opening in a new tab. 

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.0b4pre, last updated on April 26, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

4. Brief makes reading RSS feeds easier and more intuitive.  It includes a full set of features that people look for in an RSS reader, place on a simple, interactive page, allowing you to bookmark and tag items with a single click.  

Some of the features include headlines, which gives you a compact display, in-browser viewing, keyboard shortcuts, search box, automatic checking, and options/settings for each feed.

Brief has received a 5/5 star rating from 50 reviewers.

Compatibility: Versions 3.0-3.0.*, last updated June 16, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

5.  Atomic is an Atom Publishing Protocol, designed for creating and manipulating Atom feeds.  It is useful as a blogging client or for accessing services such as Google Data.  Good companion to AtomMojo for manipulating feeds in a database.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*
Links:  Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

6. Wizz RSS News Reader Lite is a stripped down version of the Wizz RSS News Reader.  It features many of the functions of the full-featured version, without the Watch List and the weather area.

Some of the additional features include:

• Supports all versions of RSS, Atom 0.3 and 1.0, Podcast (Enclosure) feeds, the Feed protocol
• Integrated with Places
• Filter news items on words and/or phrases
• Feed Search – finds feeds/OPML identification with correct mime types
• Feed items stored locally for a set period of time (changeable)
• Quick Read function to test/preview feeds before adding them
• Supports OPML import and export (from local file or remote host)
• Read all feeds in a category with a single click
• Optionally display sidebar on right hand side or hide read items
• Optional server storage of feeds for easy access from any computer
• Publish feeds on any website
• Integrated Live Bookmark import and support
• Email sharing of news items/feeds using SMTP
• Domain-specific Google search (integrated), Feedster search, Feedbase search
• Gmail checker

Compatibility: Versions 3.0b5-3.0.*
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

7. Monalo Toolbar allows you to show RSS feed headlined in the toolbar, letting you select a list of topics to import headlines from feeds relating to the chosen topic.  Other abilities include notification when there are updates to your RSS feeds, and allows you to share links with others.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-2.0.0.*
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

8. NewsFox is an efficient three-pane e-mail style Atom and RSS feed reader.  You can group feeds, read feed content offline, update feeds, one-click subscription, and read other feeds while updating.  Available in several languages.

5-star rating from 36 reviewers.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, last updated June 4, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

9. 22Pixels Sidekik allows you to add, view, edit, and share all your feeds from a sidebar, so you still have room to work in the main screen area.  Includes several shortcuts for easier access.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-2.0.0.*, Not Version 3.0
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page (Not Available)

10. NewsBar is a tool that places information at the top of the browser, directing you to the original post/story when clicked on.  You can also manage multiple feeds, order them automatically through several methods, and add feeds with a built-in wizard.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page (None)

11. AddThis All-In-One Bookmarking Button allows you to save and collect bookmarks, feeds, podcasts, and product links while searching and is compatible with most bookmarking, feed reader, podcasting, and shopping services.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-2.0.0.*, Not Firefox 3.0
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

12. Enhanced Feed Preview displays feeds using author style sheets (author style sheets), otherwise it will use Firefox’s built-in feed preview.  it displays subscription messages for the feeds which have style sheets, with options for which subscription messages are shown.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0a3, updated February 9, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

13. Wizz RSS News Reader is a more feature-packed version than the “Lite” version, listed above.  It includes everything that the lite version has, so there is no need to go into depth again.  The main features that this version does have, however is more language support, weather reports, as well as more options.

Compatibility: Versions 3.0b5-3.0.*, last updated on June 8, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

14. Reliby is a small tool which reloads all of your Live Bookmarks or RSS feeds with the push of a single button.  Comments have provided rave reviews of this little extension.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.1a1pre, last updated on May 31, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

15. FeedGhost Add-on integrates with the FeedGhost RSS reader, allowing you to subscribe to feeds using FeedGhost, tag we pages with a right click menu or status bar button.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-2.0.0.*, last updated February 6, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

16. Sage-Too is a Firefox 3 port of the original Sage feed reader with added functionality and bug fixes.  This is one of the most popular feed readers for Firefox at this point, with more than ten thousand downloads per week.  Although it is lightweight, it still features many popular and demanded features.

• Reads RSS versions 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0 and Atom Feeds
• Feed Discovery
• Integrates with Firefox’s bookmark storage and Live Bookmarks
• Imports and exports OPML feed lists
• Newspaper feed rendering customizable via style sheets
• Translated into several languages
• Technroati and RSS search engine integration
• Added security, feed parser, tabbing, ad-blocking, cooperation with social bookmarks, automatically mark all items as read, and more

Compatibility: Versions 3.0b5-3.0.*, last updated June 5, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

17. RSS Ticker loads your Live Bookmarks and scrolls the titles of them across the screen while you are browsing the web.  The ticker can be placed in various locations, as it features customizable options for teh display, including the scroll speed, smoothness, and link width.  

Works with either RSS or Atom feeds, or your Live Bookmarks.  The main feature of this add-on versus other news scrollers is the added features and customization.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated on June 19, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

18. PicLens is a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing news feeds, sports feeds, images, videos, and more.  The reason that it was included in this list is because it provides an alternative way to view media RSS-feeds (primarily for photo sites). 

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated on June 16, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

19. Feed Sidebar is an extension that displays the items from your Live Bookmarks in the sidebar.  It’s main purpose is to be a lightweight extension of the RSS capabilities already included in Firefox, rather than a completely new feed management system.  

It includes several options for reading feeds, and uses its own history to track read items, so you can clear the browser history without clearing the feed history.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated on July 7, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

20. Read It Later makes it easy to save pages of interest and read them later – no clutter for sites that you would normally only visit once and delete later.

Features:

• Saves pages to a reading list – for viewing later
• Offline Reading Mode for reading sites with no connection
• RSS Feeds – Automatically adds feeds (requires importing) for viewing within the add-on
• Sync Between Computers allows you to read your feeds from multiple, different computers
• Allows you to bookmark pages on your preferred bookmarking service
• Click to Save Mode – Saves a reading list simply by clicking on interesting links

Compatibility: Versions 3.0b3-3.0.*, last updated on July 7, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

21. Beatnik is a simple, elegant news reader for RSS and Atom feeds.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-2.0.0.*, last updated on November 7, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page  

22. Update Scanner helps you monitor web pages for updates, especially those that don’t provide Atom or RSS feeds.

Features:

• Select update interval
• Changes are automatically highlighted
• Minor changes may be ignored
• Full international support

Compatibility: Firefox 3.0-3.0.*, last updated on June 23, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

23. Read4Me is an XUL Client front end to read4me server, a Python feed reading web service.  It reads Atom or RSS atom feeds and reports how much you will like the articles.  It also includes a server and Firefox extension client.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated on October 25, 2006
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

24. Simple RSS Reader (SRR) is a tool for quickly reading your RSS feeds, with a built-in preview, navigational bar, and setup panel.  Supports all Atom and RSS feeds.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0b3, last updated on March 20, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

25. Google Reader Watcher quickly checks your Google Reader for unread feeds and will display them in the Firefox status bar.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, last updated on May 25, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

26. Sage (a different version) is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed reader.  Features include support for all versions of RSS and Atom feeds, feed discovery, integrates with Firefox’s bookmark system, imports/exports OPML feed lists, includes newspaper feed rendering customizable via style sheets, plus support for multiple languages.

Compatibility: Versions 3.0b1-3.0.*, last updated on June 23, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

27. infoRSS displays RSS/Atom/parsed HTML and NNTP feeds is an a scrolling area in the status bar.  It is also compatible with podcast RSS feeds, which can be directly downloaded.  It also functions as a good Gmail notifier.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.0b3, last updated on March 1, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

28. Skipstor [EXPERIMENTAL] allows you to mark RSS feeds you’re interested in and notifies you of updates.  It allows you to search through all feeds and watch for new ones, and sits in your toolbar, as well as tells you about new items you haven’t read, skipping through those that you don’t want to read/new items.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated on July 13, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

29. feedXI Clipping Tools [EXPERIMENTAL] is an add-on that allows selected content to be saved as a feedXI clipping, which then can be displayed in a variety of widgets.

The widgets can then be placed on websites, and you may merge and filter existing feeds, or extend the information you publish to include clips from anywhere from the web.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated on August 3, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

30. Netvibes [EXPERIMENTAL] adds a Netvibes button to your toolbar and makes Netvibes your default feed reader.  It allows you to quickly and easily add RSS feeds to your Netvibes page.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated on June 10, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

31. FoxBurner [EXPERIMENTAL] allows you to monitor your FeedBurner account – feed’s hits and subscribers.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated on October 15, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

32. LiveLines [EXPERIMENTAL] adds RSS feeds to web-based readers, reader extensions, or desktop readers with the RSS icon in the status bar.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-1.5.0.*, last updated on March 18, 2006
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page  

33. Ecastr Toolbar [EXPERIMENTAL] is a toolbar that enables you to bookmark websites and subscribe to feeds with a single click.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated November 17, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

34. Feedno.nl [EXPIERMENTAL] allows you to add your personal Feedo directly from Firefox.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, last updated June 25, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

35. FeedBag [EXPERIMENTAL] is an add-on that allows you to subscribe to feeds in Liferea, a feed reader for Linux and Unix.  It disables the Live Bookmarks feature for Firefox, and current feeds will be directly added to the Liferea feed list.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-1.5.0.*, last updated on September 26, 2006
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

36. Google Reader Toolkit  [EXPERIMENTAL] is an extension that places an icon in the Firefox status bar, and notifies you if there are any updates to your feed list.  It is based on the Bloglines Toolkit.  A disadvantage is that it doesn’t support authentication, so you need to be logged in to the service.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0, last updated on June 16, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

37. Iris  [EXPERIMENTAL] is an extension that displays Google Reader subscriptions in the Firefox sidebar.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-1.5.0.*, last updated on July 11, 2006
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

38. gReader Comments [EXPERIMENTAL] is a Greasemonkey script-turned-extension that brings Disqus conversations into Google Reader.  All entries have a comment thread, and you will be able to join the existing conversation for blogs that use Disqus.  Includes Disqus and Bookmarklets functionality.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, last updated on May 19, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

39. RichFeedButton [EXPERIMENTAL] allows you to use one button to subscribe to feeds in programs such as Thunderbird, the clipboard.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.0b4pre, last updated on June 23, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

40. Intranet Feed Reader [EXPERIMENTAL] is an intranet feed reader and collaboration tool useful for part of a developer’s dashboard.  It can display any intranet feed, useful for information necessary for day-to-day work.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, updated June 14, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

41. BlogRovr fetches post from your favorite blogs, and shows you summaries of the posts, without having to leave the page you were on.  It also suggests popular items and lets you Twitter about any site you’re on.

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated May 18, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

42. OPML Reader is a feed reader for any OPML Autodiscovery enabled page.  Choose between Optimized OPML browser and Grazr.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.1a1pre, last updated on November 22, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

43. Better GReader allows you to preview web pages inline in Google Reader, collapse the header and sidebar for more reading area, and get additional skins, add Favicons, and more.

Compatibility: Versions 0.8-3.0.*, last updated on July 6, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

44. Habari Xenu [EXPERIMENTAL] is a news aggregator and reader that is compatible with almost all versions of RSS, RDF, and Atom syndication feeds.

Compatibility: Versions 0.8-1.5.0.*, last updated on December 4, 2005
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

45. Launchbeat Launch Me [EXPERIMENTAL] is a service that allows simplified sharing of links, using RSS feeds.  You can send your “friends” the feed name and everyone can contribute.  If your feed has a password, you can share it with friends and get some exclusivity.  

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.0.*, last updated on June 7, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

46. FeedBurner Subscribers [EXPERIMENTAL] sits in the status bar so it does not affect your browsing experience, track any valid FeedBurner Feed with Feed Awareness.  You can also view readers and/or hits to your feed, options to show or not to show labels for your readers and/or hits, and finally, right clicking the icon takes your directly yo your MyFeeds page.  It uses the FeedBurner API so all calls to FeedBurner are completely legitimate.

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-3.0.*, last updated on June 25, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

47. Symbaloo Bookmarker [EXPERIMENTAL] allows you to easily and quickly add sites and feeds to your Symbaloo desktop, and easily access your favorite sites and services.

Compatibility: Versions 1.0-3.0.*, last updated on June 27, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page

48. Buru Picker [EXPERIMENTAL] is a tool that lets you store bookmarks and add RSS feeds, saved to your collection with one click.  

Compatibility: Versions 2.0-3.0.*, last updated on July 7, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

49. Headlines Ticker [EXPERIMENTAL] is a small tool for showing RSS and Atom headlines on the status bar. 

Compatibility: Versions 3.0-3.1a1pre, last updated on July 13, 2008
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

50. Fizzle [EXPERIMENTAL] is a RSS and Atom feed reader that uses your Livemark bookmark feeds.  There is a small orange feed button located in the location bar, which will be present when a RSS or Atom feed is available for that site. 

Compatibility: Versions 1.5-2.0.0.*, last updated on March 27, 2007
Links: Firefox Add-ons | Developer Page 

This list and the growing number of updated/available feed readers is a good indication that there are more RSS readers/tools becoming available for use with Firefox (compared with the sixteen I found in November).  However, more of these need to be kept up-to-date or taken over and/or ported to the new version by other developers.

RSS Day.org

RSS has become one of the leading tools for bloggers, although only a few percent of people who own websites or are active online know about it.

What is RSS?

In simplified terms, RSS is a type of feed format used online that allows publishers to frequently update and deliver their content (blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts) to readers and listeners. [from Wikipedia]

There is no code required to install or use RSS, as most modern blog software automatically includes code to utilize it.  However, if you take a look at the RSS string, with posts, you can see that more is going on behind the scenes than you think.
 

Video Page | Transcript

The current version of RSS (2.0) stands for Really Simple Syndication.  Previous versions (1.0 and 0.90) stood for RDF Site Summary, and RSS 0.91 represented Rich Site Summary.

History

RSS started as a way to deliver information in 1995, when Ramanathan V. Guha and others in Apple Computer’s Advanced Technology Group delivered the Meta Content Framework.  In 1999, the first version of RSS was created by Guha while working at Netscape, and its primary usage was on the personal Netscape.com portal, becoming known as RSS 0.9.  A new version was produced in 1999, called RSS 0.91, by Dan Libby of Netscape.  

The following six years brought some changes to RSS, an update to Version 1.0 and the creation of the Atom feed was begun in June 2003, as a way to ‘clean up’ the issues surrounding RSS.  Mozilla’s Firefox browser first began using the now widely accepted feed icon (orange with a circle and two bars, directed to the right) around 2005 when Microsoft Internet Explorer also began adopting it.  

How Bloggers and Readers Can Better Utilize Feeds

Feeds allow everyone to stay updated.  Let’s say you published a post at eight a.m.  Frequent readers may not know or realize that you published or updated your content.  With feeds (RSS and Atom), they can quickly check, within a fairly short period, and see that their feeds, and your website/blog were updated.  Before feeds, people had to manually go to each site or subscribe to a newsletter-type service, often more costly to both parties in time and money.

Many popular news sites serve feeds, and upon subscribing, you will immediately be alerted when a news story breaks, via your favorite feed reader.  There are several online choices, including Google Reader, and Bloglines.  NewsGator specializes in several feed reading services, both online and offline.

FeedBurner is a service that allows bloggers and publishers to keep track of their feeds and make the process of subscribing via different methods even easier.

Whenever you see the little icon in the address bar or a link on the site that says “Subscribe to Posts”, it typically means that you are going to be subscribing, and staying up-to-date with the content on the site via RSS or similar feed method.

RSS Day is an initiative that Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips began to help spread the word about the benefits of RSS.  [More information via on post] It’s extremely simple to participate in the project.  On May 1st, no matter what type of blog you have, as RSS benefits everyone, write a post about RSS, informing your readers about what the term stands for or how RSS feeds work.

Origins of the Initiative 

Even though most bloggers learn about feeds and subscriptions within the first week they start blogging, most occasional internet surfers have no idea what RSS is or what it does.

Since 2005, the amount of people using RSS aggregators or XML readers to get their news or used them on their websites only increased by about 1.4% while the amount of websites and users only increased tenfold. 

The main purpose of the project is to celebrate the many benefits of RSS and to inform the general public about its uses.

Daniel has created a website to simplify the process of informing people about RSS and includes several banners you can use to spread the word.

Promote RSS Day to Win!

There is also a contest to help spread the word, with over $3,000 in donation prizes available for winning.  By informing readers about the day, you will automatically be entered in (as long as your article is written by April 30th).  

Prizes are as follows:

• 5 $100 credit vouchers from Sponsored Reviews ($500)
• 6 $50 cash prizes via Paypal ($300)
• $250 in credits from FlashDen ($250)
• 1 year of free web hosting from Doreo ($100)
• 5 registrations with 10,000 credits on 125 Exchange ($100)
• 3 copies of Landing Page Optimization: The Complete Guide ($300)
• 3 packages with 100,000 impressions from BlogUpp! ($200)
• a 3-month enrollment to the SEOBook training program ($300)
• 3 single licenses to any iThemes Premium theme ($240)
• 3 $100 credit vouchers to buy links from TNX ($300)
• 5 copies of “Killer Domains: How to Find the Perfect Domain Name” ($100)
• 5 free banner designs from MiniBannersZen ($100)
• 3 single licenses to the Mimbo Pro Premium theme ($300)