e-wot?

How to make an RSS feed for a Wordpress category? This is surprisingly easy.

Just add /feed to the end of a category’s URL. For example, here is the URL for my KM category:

http://e-wot.com/category/km/

And here is the RSS feed for my KM category:

http://e-wot.com/category/km/feed

Twitter. I follow people who share the most amazing stuff. Follow me: Markhamster – and then follow the people I’m following (for a start). I use Tweetdeck (iPhone too).

Feedly. It’s the best rss feed aggregator. It’s a Firefox addon. I’ll list my feeds in another post.

Buzz out loud. The best podcast about all things tech (CNet). Intelligent, and heated discussions by people who really know what they’re talking about. I listen to this on my iPhone on the way to work. Best to subscribe to it from iTunes podcast directory.

Buzz report. A vodcast (also from CNet) anchored by Molly Wood (she’s great: smart, passionate & funny). I watch this on my iPhone. Best to subscribe to it from iTunes podcast directory.

GeekBrief.TV. A vodcast – Cali Lewis anchors. Gadgets, interviews, etc… I watch this on my iPhone. Best to subscribe to it from iTunes podcast directory too.

For best results, subscribe to the pod/vodcasts in iTunes so they download onto your computer (you won’t have to watch and wait while they play – they’ll just play). I download them overnight, or while I’m having breakfast.

Ok, I’ve checked out the tools I mentioned in my previous post. And here are my initial thoughts…

Both iGoogle and myYahoo require login and an account. This isn’t a big deal if you’ve already got an account with one of these, but it’s a bit of a bore if you haven’t. Google has a lot of great applications that integrate nicely, like their calendar (which links to my MS Outlook calendar from behind my workplace firewall nicely).. Yahoo, probably has the same kind of cross-over. But…

Even tho’ I’ve got accounts with both Google and Yahoo, I’d still go for either Netvibes or Pageflakes. Here’s why…

• they’re easy to get to grips with
• they’re fun to use and intuitive
• they ‘feel’ friendly
• they’ve got loads of really great things you can add

Er… so what are the differences I can see so far?

Pageflakes feels a little more intuitive. The text feeds have an option which allows thumbnails to show up with links and leads which makes your page look nicer. Adding new feeds is easy and there are plenty of new flakes to choose from.

Netvibes allows you to add feeds from password protected sites (good for me, ‘cos I wanted to get feeds from our password protected wiki at work). You can also customise your page with themes more (but Pageflakes are introducing more customisable themes soon). You can also add modules that allow you to search videos, podcasts and images from multiple sources.

Both offer a repository of ’stuff’ for you to customise your page. If you’re techy enough, you can make your own modules or pageflakes for either. So far, as far as I can figure out, Pageflakes is the one that most obviously allows you to share and export stuff (modules and pages).

From what I’ve discovered (link), Netvibes started a while ago and started strong. But Pageflakes has really caught up over the past months. It’s a close race. I reckon Netvibes has the lead, but Pageflakes looks like overtaking. They’re both contenders in the Webware100 competition. Let’s wait and see.

A very useful rss feed reader. It’s free. It’s online. And it’ll work on your mobile phone (if you’ve got a browser and web access on your mobile).

click for Google Reader

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a convenient way to get sent freshly updated information from your favourite websites (e.g. news, new blog entries, new podcasts, etc…).

See the orange buttons on this page? They’re RSS feeds. If you click one, you’ll get taken to a page that allows you to add it to your feedreader (more about feedreaders below).

Why do I need RSS?

Instead of browsing your favourite web pages to find out what’s new, you can use RSS feeds to deliver all the new stuff directly to you – to your mobile phone or to your PC(s).

The feed delivers the pure info without any of the packaging. For a news item on Google News, you just get the text and some links. For a podcast from CNet, you just get the podcast. In other words, the feed strips out all the decoration and advertising you normally see on a website.

The real advantage is that you save time by having all your favourite sites come to you, instead of you having to go to them. You can also benefit from having all that new info delivered anywhere you want – I get mine on my phone to read or listen to on the bus.

How can I use it?

Have a go.

First you need a feedreader. There are loads to choose from, but let’s start you off with Bloglines. It’s an online feedreader so you don’t need to install anything. You can also use Bloglines on your mobile (if your phone can connect to the Web). Here’s the link http://www.bloglines.com Bloglines is free.

Follow the instructions to register with Bloglines. Bloglines will suggest a few feeds to get you started. You’ll need to reply to the email they send you, and tada! you have a feedreader with a few feeds all in under 5 minutes.

Now add Zoiks!!! to your bloglines feeds by clicking one of the orange buttons on the left of this page. These buttons will take you to this web page for the feed from the Zoiks site: http://zoiks.wordpress.com/feed

At the top of that page there’s a dropdown menu where you should be able to select Bloglines. It’s as simple as that.

Now a couple of caveats.

1. Some websites, like the BBC, won’t show you their whole news article in the feed reader. They’ll show you a lead, then link to the page on their site. They want traffic to their site, you see.
2. You’ll need to do some fiddling about to get your feeds to show properly on your mobile phone. I can’t help you there, all phones are different. My phone’s a Nokia N73, it’s browser has a folder for feeds and it also has an application called ‘Services’ which strips out the graphics from websites (which is good).
3. It’s possible to load podcasts directly a phone, but big files might crash it. Mine doesn’t like big files. The best alternative I’ve found is to download the podcasts with itunes then transfer them to my phone’s memory card.