For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):
RSS tools have experienced radical changes over the years. The most dominant player, Google Reader is gone (many people were dismayed and unhappy, but it is what it is), and other Web tools and social media have added RSS features within its own. Of course, some other RSS tools and services have come up to take place Google Reader's roles. There are other tools also that are not exactly RSS, but have gained niche places to help people better organize a large amount of information. RSS and these tools are to manage information (that is rapidly changing and growing) more effectively and efficiently.
RSS tools have experienced radical changes over the years. The most dominant player, Google Reader is gone (many people were dismayed and unhappy, but it is what it is), and other Web tools and social media have added RSS features within its own. Of course, some other RSS tools and services have come up to take place Google Reader's roles. There are other tools also that are not exactly RSS, but have gained niche places to help people better organize a large amount of information. RSS and these tools are to manage information (that is rapidly changing and growing) more effectively and efficiently.
- RSS in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (3.5 minutes)
Popular Tools - Course Google Site at https://sites.google.com/site/idt351class/
Google has posted an announcement about their decision to no longer support Google Reader and suggested several alternative tools here. Google is not the only one who suggested alternatives. More can be found here.* Disclaimer as of Mar 02, 2015 - It is amazing and surprising to see how changes are fast in the arena of RSS tools. The second popular tool, Blogline after Google Reader is now gone for about a month and half. Implications or conclusion? Well, RSS tools are very powerful and useful, but the learning curve is a tiny bit higher and many tools are merging/adding RSS features onto their own. Once you learn more about RSS tool, you will see that it has a heavy emphasis on learning and information, which might be another reason for slow adoption compared to entertainment or pleasure/fun oriented tools.
RSS tools are similar in terms of core features. (1) They provide search feature. You should see that web sites/services where content updates are frequent, they are a good candidate for having RSS features (e.g., news, journals, library search results, discussion threads, etc. - you can enter the name of the web site/journal name directly to the tool's search field, or from any website you visit and see the orange "rss" button, if you click it, popular RSS subscription tools should pop up. (2) They allow you to organize your subscriptions by folders or categories. (3) They allow you to export/import subscriptions across similar services - most popular tools also allow you to share your subscription(s) with others. In the lab, we will visit popular news sites, journals, and library search results, and each time, will see how the page can be incorporated into your RSS subscription.
- Feedly
- Feedspot
- And more RSS tools or feeders - Some are for desktop and platform specific
- RSS Mix (web service) - If students work on research or web search, their search URLs can be combined and created into a RSS feed
- If you know HTML code and DreamWeaver, this service automatically converts any RSS feed into a JavaScript code, which you can insert within a <div> </div> tag. This way, from 250, you learned how to create events/news on the site, and allow people to subscribe to your web page (RSS to Javascript)
- Netvibes, Flipboard, vs. MyYahoo - Each tool allows you to add many panels/flakes to a single web page. The first two allow you to organize panels by different RSS feeds (if the web site provides RSS feeds). As of 2/16/2014, Pageflakes' DNS registration has expired (and this is strange, people expect that to come back soon). Google also used to have a feature called iGoogle that is similar to MyYahoo, then discontinued its service recently. Case in point? Invest in big pictures, major functionalities - things will change, and you can catch up quickly!
Further Resources
- Blog search from Google or Technorati's watchlist - same action as above can be done
- Social search (social media search)
You can comment on any of the following:
- How have you managed a lot of resources or information you have found on the Web? Have you used RSS or any tools introduced here before, or any other similar tool to better track or organize your subscriptions?
- Which features or functions did you find as very useful from which tool? How will you use the tool/service more in the future?
- For more active and better use of the RSS or information organization tool in class or training, what would you suggest?
