Feed aggregator developers currently struggle with multiple data formats, unclean sources, HTTP status handling, and many other complex problems that take time away from actually developing their application. New feed platforms are emerging that will allow developers to leverage the existing work of larger teams that already sweat the small stuff every day, allowing new aggregator developers to focus on creating new experiences on top of feed data to thrill users and deliver requested features quicker and easier than ever before. Microsoft, Google, and NewsGator are three examples of established companies exposing their feed architecture to the outside world to…
Category Archives: Feed aggregators
State of the aggregator
In the beginning, there was text. Early feed applications such as Netscape’s In-Box Direct, PointCast, and Microsoft Active Desktop transformed existing data formats such as a newspaper and its articles, summaries, and full-text and applied traditional publishing thoughts to a new transport medium. Almost 10 years after then introduction of early web feed formats we are just starting to tap into the full potential of feeds as a descriptive data format with rich payloads and more easily discoverable content. Desktop aggregation The desktop has been the traditional home of feed experiences. Our desktop aggregators are full of text-heavy content (preferably…
Feed platform presentation: Microsoft, Google, and NewsGator
As previously mentioned, I will lead a session on Feeds as a Platform at the Emerging Technology conference tomorrow at 1:45 p.m. I will talk about the feed ecosystem, peer into the future a bit, and introduce attendees to three real-world examples of feed platforms. Windows RSS platform. Jane Kim of Microsoft will present Microsoft’s new technologies exposing feeds at the operating system level. You will see feed handling in action on the latest builds of Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 and learn why they matter to both users and developers. Google Reader API. I will introduce the Google…
Feeds as a platform talk at ETech
I will be at O’Reilly’s sold-out Emerging Technology conference next week learning about the latest developments in the online technology world and talking to a lot of smart people. If you are at the conference you should come to my Feeds as a Platform presentation on Wednesday, March 8, at 1:45 p.m. I will talk about new trends in the syndication space and the technologies that make it all possible. What will the syndication space look like at the end of 2006? What are the underutilized applications of the technology primed for the most growth? What new products and services…
Continued interests
I’ve been digging into a few new areas of interest over the past few months I feel still need improvement in search, discovery and tracking. I’ve spoken about most of these topics in my podcast series with Om, but it’s worth mentioning again in text. I’m interested in continuing my work in these areas and perhaps helping to solve some existing problems. Feeds We have RSS 2.0, and Atom 1.0, the world is starting to understand how syndicated content makes sense, but I don’t see a lot of future thinking for handling multiple locations, personas, and personalized content. Advertising is…
Story of Google Reader
I had lunch today with the Google Reader team and learned a bit more about the group, their success and challenges, and how new projects at Google are sometimes formed. This is the story of how a side-project intended for someone’s blog became a feed aggregator integrated into one of the largest Web properties in the world. It all started with a love of blogging. Jason Shellen and Chris Wetherell were both members of the Blogger team and working on different ways to trick out their personal blogs. Jason kept various blogs including a link blog and wanted a way…
Feed exclusion using categories
Many current and future feed publishers create content targeted at individuals for personal use and are not meant for widespread consumption. You may have a customized feed from Netflix, FeedBurner, or WordPress.com to track your movie queue, subscriber count, or blog stats respectively. Some feeds offer privacy through obfuscated URLs and others are just a one-time token exchange at the time of subscription. Given the current merged back-ends of online search aggregators with search and other methods of open discovery, how can a feed publisher opt-out of a public index? One solution using existing element sets may be to overload…
Google Toolbar API
Google Toolbar version 4 allows developers to create custom buttons using a custom XML descriptor and extended functionality using RDF, RSS, and Atom feeds. The Google toolbar button API can be used to display the latest entry titles from a feed, execute a keyword or URL search, or continuously communicate data at a glance. I created custom buttons for this blog and Technorati. The Google Toolbar can now serve as a feed reader for any feed with a custom Google Toolbar icon. You can even specify in your button file a different icon you would like to display when new…
Photocasts are not valid RSS
I just bought a copy of Apple iLife 06 and created my first photocast of foodporn. The feed invents its own date format and places a guid at the channel level. Apple is also doing some odd user agent restricting access to browsers such as Firefox and tools such as Feed Validator. <pubDate>2006-01-11 18:55:03 -0800</pubDate> Perhaps Apple can publish an update to make all dates RFC 822. Apple also declared a new “wallpaper” DTD that is undefined, just like their podcast DTD. Tags: ilife, photocast, ilife06, puppy…
Pacific Digital WiFi picture frame with Windows Vista features
Pacific Digital is also showing off a WiFi picture frame at CES in Las Vegas. The new MemoryFrame products will connect to Windows Vista PCs using Windows Media Connect, Windows Connect Now, and Vista’s integrated RSS features. The picture frame can connect to other PCs on a home network using WiFi and display shared content. I could not find any pricing information but current 10.4″ wireless picture frames from Pacific Digital cost about $400. Tags: photos, windowsvista, windows…