News Aggregators : 8 Time Saving Options

James Yeang — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:57:22 +0000

News on the web is fleeting, here today; gone today. Oh, there’s plenty of information throughout the day but tracking it all down can be time-consuming. And you know you’ll miss something.

Well, no worries. There are plenty of news portals – collections of RSS feeds on newsy topics. The king of the hill for RSS aggregation is PopURLs, but there are other alternatives as well. Each is a little different. Each has a political slant (any publication does) and each has a unique set of features.

So, to keep you in the loop throughout the day, check out the latest news on these news feed aggregation sites that will save you lots of time

1. How to get aggregated tech news

Tech news for the masses. There are tons of geeky websites that are slathered with technobabble. web20 delivers the tech news that affect all of us, not just the web demographic. Information overload on Twitter? No problem, simply visit this website & you will get all the latest tech information from top tech websites all in one page.

So, web20 places its editorial focus on the tech world, but it’s the tech world that affects us all. Bookmark it.

2. How to get aggregated news on any search term

The site for news junkies, addictomatic is user friendly, offering a home page with broad categories including games, sports, fashion, gossip and a bunch more.

Unlike any other PopURL wannabes, addictomatic allows you to choose any news you want to browse by simply typing in your keyword in the search bar, sort of like Google, except it is for real time news. Moreover, you can personalize your own results by collecting all the search terms into one page.

Check out the “Hot Topics” at the top of the page so you can sound smart hanging around the water cooler that day at the office.

3. How to get aggregated news from the top social bookmarking sites

Feeds from digg, del.icio.us. news.google, newsvine, reddit, wired and tons of other sources, The Weblist doesn’t make any promises it can’t keep. No graphics. No editorial comment. You decide what’s worth reading from a broad selection of topics.

As the tagline says ‘What people are clicking on today’, this website mainly take the news off some of the Internet most popular websites, whether it’s video sites, social media website or blogs.

The addition of social bookmarking services like digg gives The Weblist a “people’s portal” feel. If you like your news straight up and neat, you’ll want to stop by this site daily. There’s always something new.

4. How to get aggregated news optimized for your mobile phone

Good news, bad news scenario here. Individurls does offer a slew of feeds, that’s a fact. Bad news is you have to create an account to log in and see what’s behind the curtain. Best part about Individurls is that it is optimized for your mobile phone. If you love your iPhone so much till you don’t want to use your lappy, Individurls is a neat service that gives you the latest news from several tech blogs in one slick & smooth page.

Standard technology, but the complete customization equips you to create your own news portal with all your favorite links in one place. Hey, if you want total customization, Individurls is what you’ve been looking for.

5. How to get aggregated news arranged to you in pictures

Create your own news grid with this slick site. There’s a hot topics link, a sources link (to add credibility), a customizable user grid and drop downs of menus on everything imaginable.

If you are a fan of hot news with fancy graphics then this website is for you. While it’s main focus is on world & local news, every headline is put together with screenshots of the news at Newser homepage, making the news look much more attractive than any other text-only websites.

The combination of fast news fast and the ability to customize your own grid based on recommendations from the editors at Newser makes this site a favorite among web browsers looking for good stuff to read.

6. How to get aggregated news from on any given topic

Alltop tries to be all things to all visitors, offering a smorgasbord of newsy tidbits. Alltop casts a wide net when it comes to news feeds, coving a wide range of topics from sources as varied as The New York Times to Wired – quite an editorial range.

At first glance it may seem similar to PopURLs, but if you look at it carefully then you will know it’s much more larger than Popurls. Whether it’s tech or sports, there’s nothing you can’t find at Alltop – The Wikipedia of real time news. All the best sites on any topic already handpicked for your reading pleasure.

7. How to get aggregated productivity tips

A totally tricked-out site, WorkingTips is loaded with tips, suggestions, news, beautiful pix and a totally Zen view of goings on around the globe.

If you are sick of working overtime then this website will help solving your problem. Loaded with productivity tips from several quality blogs & sites, your performance in working field will be seriously boosted by tips & suggestions from these experts.

8. How to share aggregated news and get some rev share

Slick graphics and pinpoint navigation makes Newsbeet one of the most visited aggregators for those who want their news now.

While creating your own Newsbeets page, you can implement your Adsense html code to earn ad revenues via clicks on your Newsbeets page. Besides that, your readers can even submit their own content & vote for their favorite stories.

Nothing gets better than earning some nice side income by promoting your own community, isn’t it?

Conclusion

So, whether you want the news handed to you on a silver platter, you want to create your own online news aggregation or you want to see what people are digging about, there are plenty of portals that’ll give you the latest scoop on what’s happening out there in the real world.

This was a guest post written by Edward Khoo who blogs about blogging & internet tips

Visit all your favourite websites in a fraction of the time… (RSS)

James Yeang — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 11:45:00 +0000

Keeping up to date is important to me, and because of this, I have a number websites which I try read every day. Pretty soon however, I ran into the “So many websites, so little time” problem (which plagues every web user sometime or another).

What RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology allowed me to do was to see what’s on all my favourite websites from a central location, instead of visiting each website individually.

In the example pictured below, I can see the updated stories on four websites at a single glance.

Because my favourite websites were coming to me, instead of me going to them:

I was spending time reading articles I want, rather than spending time finding the articles to read.

Which sites can this work with?

Most of the major websites are RSS friendly (CNN, BBC, WSJ, Wired, Fortune, Forbes, NYT etc.) – even this website has RSS feeds!

How do I subscribe to a feed?

I will quickly go through 4 methods from easiest to most difficult.

Method #1: Live Bookmarks (Requires Firefox Browser)

If you’re using Firefox, you will see this orange symbol on the top of your screen, when you visit an RSS compatible site. Click on the button to subscribe via Liveboomarks (built into Firefox).

Method #2: RSS Reader Chicklets

On some websites you may see a number of mini banners called chicklets.

Once you have signed up for an RSS reader, click on the relevant chicklet to subscribe to the website. While this one click solution is easy, not every site supports them.

Method #3: Copy and Paste the RSS Address

This is the original, failsafe method but takes the most number of steps to accomplish. Look out for just a text link saying RSS, on a webpage.

Just right click the icon, copy the link location, and just paste it into your RSS reader where it says something like “Add feed address”.

RSS Reader Recommendations

It’s hard to recommend any single RSS reader because it all depends on what kind of user you are. In any case, if you just want to try out something quickly, I recommend Microsoft Live.com or Google IG

I have picked six of the RSS readers I’ve had good experiences with, and I have prepared a quick web-based sheet which should help you decide.

Of course this is just a quick overall evaluation model, and there are other factors that you may want to consider. Livebookmarks for example, resides on your PC browser. Most of the other pages described here, resides in the Internet, where you can have access to your feeds from any computer. Some readers check web-based email (Yahoo, MSN, Google) . Some will provide US stock quotes, weather, etc. Take a look around.

All things considered…

What is described here is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what RSS can do, and I will cover more in a later post. Give RSS a try, and you will change the way you use the Internet forever.

—

This writer is currently using Netvibes.

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