RealNetworks just launched a news aggregation site powered by syndicated content. The new RealTime site, toolbar, and screensaver provide a customized news reading experience complete with feed discovery, recommendations, and the ability to interact with subscriptions online or on the desktop. The new software will be promoted and bundled with RealPlayer, a desktop application with millions of installed users.
Website visitors can customize their feed subscriptions using a cookie store or create an account to persist the data to the desktop or across multiple machines. Feed search and discoverability is powered by Feedster. The site is running Apache Coyote, a stand-alone version of Apache Tomcat.
Real’s large install base of desktop media players coupled with the tendency of that user base to select “Easy Install” and install all the bundled software piggybacking on the desired software will likely lead to lots of RealTime toolbars attached to the browsers of Windows users. The toolbar will compete for attention from popular offerings from Google and Yahoo! already augmenting the browser experience.
(via Brady Forrest)