RSS – A Primer by Robert Scoble

Robert is one of the leaders in the Tech blog world. He has written a terrific primer on RSS readers. I do not think that RSS has permeated the political blogging world as much as it will over the next 18 months. If you are like me, you find going from site to site takes alot of time to see what new has happenned. About a year ago, I started using NewsGator  that plugs in to outlook. Now I can follow over 150 blogs very very quickly. When a new item is posted, it is pushed to my outlook in a folder for that site. VERY EASY.

I was just online for a couple of minutes, downloaded the RSS feeds, and now can blog from the deck at my leisure, completely offline.

Below the fold is a repost of Scobles work. Very good job in letting people know what is out there in the RSS world.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/04/01.html#a9782 

Onfolio recently released its Onfolio 2.0 Release Candidate. For new news aggregator users, this is my second recommendation after Bloglines. Bloglines is easier, but Onfolio is much more powerful and, because it stores everything on your hard drive, opens up new scenarios (like you can read and search your feeds even when on a plane unconnected from the Internet).

If you are still looking for an RSS News Aggregator, this is certainly one you should try.

Real quick refresher course:

There are three basic types of RSS News Aggregators:

1) Server-based aggregators. Some, like Newsgator cross the lines since Newsgator has a server-side service too. Other server-side aggregators are Feeds.scripting.com, MyYahoo, Bloglines, and MyMSN.

2) Standalone client-side aggregators. RSS Bandit. FeedDemon. SharpReader. Radio UserLand. Among these, my favorites are RSS Bandit and FeedDemon. You’ll need to download and install these. They don’t depend on any other application being loaded, and are browser-independent too (for the most part). On the Mac, NetNewsWire is the one most of my friends like.

3) Built in the browser. OnFolio 2.0 adds onto IE or Firefox. Optimal Access adds onto IE. The Mozilla team offers Sage for Firefox users. Pluck adds onto any browser. My favorite here is OnFolio. Pluck is pretty good too.

4) Dependent on Outlook. NewsGator is my favorite here (it’s still the aggregator I use most), but there’s also IntraVnews.

Do you have an aggregator you like more than any of those listed? Which aggregator do you like the best? Let me know.