Mozilla Firefox RSS Feeds
Those of you who have been with us for a while may remember an article I wrote a while back called, View New Firefox Extension with Squeet. As it turns out, some of the feeds in that article are now outdated.
But, here's a great web page listing current feeds for Firefox users: https://addons.mozilla.org/feeds.php. If you have the Squeet Button installed on your browser, you can just right-click any of the feed links on that page and select "Add Feed to Squeet" for easy subscription.
The page took me awhile to find, because the link to is located in the Web site's footer in a fairly small font. I suspect thousands of people who would subscribe to the "New Extensions" feed aren't, because it's so easy to miss (Top and Updated extensions are listed on the Extensions page along with an RSS symbol).
It makes me wonder if new extensions that would have otherwise become popular end up fadeing into oblivion, instead. And, of course, Firefox's extensions are a "killer app" -- for some people, like me, Firefox's great extensions are a big factor for using the product. The right extension can convert a user of another browser to a Firefox user.
The lesson here? RSS feeds should be prominent...otherwise why bother?
Note: if you haven't installed Firefox extensions before, it's ridiculously easy; I recommend reading the article referred to above for a list of good extensions. Be sure to read the reviews; you don't want to bog down your Firefox installation with bloated or sloppy add-ons.
Technorati Tags: Squeet RSS Firefox Firefox Extensions
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posted by angelo at 2:13 PM 2 comments links to this post
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
An "Inconvenient" RSS Feed
So, I finally took a look at the trailer for Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth, after seeing some of the hype online and on television last night. I haven't brought myself totally up to speed, but apparently it's generating some controversy (surprise). Is that just another word for PR? Buzz?
What I found interesting was the RSS Headlines link (Squeet It!) on the movie's homepage. Is that a first? I don't remember having seen an RSS feed for another movie. I checked out the web sites for three of the top movies in current release, and there were no feeds. Obviously, An Inconvenient Truth's marketing people have taken a very Web 2.0 approach in promoting this film. There's the RSS feed on the homepage, a blog, and a user-inclusive social aspect that includes a pledge to see the movie.
Whatever it is they're doing, it seems to be working -- according to the blog, the film brought in a record-breaking $90,000+ per screen over the weekend (only 4 screens, though). Surely, their well rounded, web centric, grassroots approach has partially contributed to this success. I'm sure we'll see Hollywood embracing these tactics more and more in the future...
Technorati Tags: RSS Squeet An Inconvenient Truth movies Al Gore Global Warming Web2.0 Web 2.0
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posted by angelo at 10:27 AM 4 comments links to this post
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Google Video Adds RSS Feeds
Google has introduced RSS feeds to it's Google Video service. This great feature allows users to keep track of favorite searches and standard listings. If you're into Google Video here are some feeds you might consider subscribing to:
Top 100 - (Squeet It!)
Featured - (Squeet It!)
Music Video - (Squeet It!)
Movies - (Squeet It!)
Sports - (Squeet It!)
To create a feed for your own search, use the following format and enter it into the Feed URL text box on your Squeet Reader "Manage Feeds" page:
http://video.google.com/videofeed?type=search&q=[SEARCH]&num=10%26output=rss
Just replace the [SEARCH] with your search string. Separate multi-word search strings with a "+" like this: comedy+central.
Technorati Tags: Google Google Video Squeet RSS
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posted by angelo at 9:07 AM 1 comments links to this post
Friday, May 26, 2006
Friday FeedBuzz for May 26
It's time to look back at the week's buzz and check out what was generating the most buzz within the Squeet Community. With the long weekend pretty much already upon us, many of you won't view this until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Well, that's ok. We'll hold the fort down for you, and this will still be interesting in a few days.
Here's What's Hot (Squeet It! ) for May 22 - 26:
Does anyone remember the Anti-Rebate article I wrote back at the end of last February? It's a great feed with lots of deals...and none of them are rebate offers. Anyway, in that story I wrote about Microsoft giving away USB flash drives in exchange for answering a few questions about licensing correctly. Well, it turns out about 16,000,000 of us got dissed on that one.
I guess MS had some wording on the site about "while supplies last." You would think that they know how many were purchased and how many people correctly responded to the questionairre...so with a little 2-and-2 common sense they would have known when their supplies were depleted. Apparently not. Will someone please teach them to use Excel? :-)
This related story made it to the number one spot for a while:
Get Your Microsoft Mystery Kiss Off Yet?
Steve Bass's Tips & Tweaks Subscribe
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Back in March, I told you about how to get a free USB flash drive from Microsoft. (Make sure to look at my disclaimer while you're there.) Early today, about four million of us received the Microsoft...
Check this out...3 monitors on 1 laptop:
Time Killer: SmackBook Pro
Steve Bass's Tips & Tweaks Subscribe
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You tell me: Is the SmackBook Pro for real -- or a brilliant spoof? I definitely want this cool tool on my notebook...
Ouch...these guys have been digging themselves a hole ever since this came out:
Mr. Open Source Sues IT@Cork
Naked Conversations Subscribe
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This is just too bizarre. Tim O'Reilly is either the father of the term Web 2.0, or he gets credit or blame for popularizing the term. For better or worse, the phrase has caught on. IT@Cork in fac...
Can a school expel a student for something they've written...at home?
Student Faces Expulsion for Blog Post
Slashdot Subscribe
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ThPhox writes "A student in the Plainfield School District in New Jersey is facing expulsion from the school district for a post made on his personal blog during non school hours. From the article: "A...
This is a great short article from Seth Godin:
In search of better
Seth's Blog Subscribe
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Every day, in almost every office of almost every organization, people are going to get together to make something better. Making things better is a natural impulse, especially if you want to grow...
All this and much more can be found on FeedBuzz.
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posted by angelo at 6:04 PM 0 comments links to this post
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Squeet's vs. Outlook 2007 RSS
Today, on Scott Cate's WebLog (Squeet It!), Scott published an article (Squeet.com vs. Outlook 2007 RSSFeed Folder) about beta testing Outlook 2007 and its new RSS functionality. Scott subscribes to about 80 syndicated feeds (via Squeet), so Outlook's built-in RSS handling was of interest to him.
Although Outlook 2007 automatically handles creating new folders for each new feed to which he subscribed, Scott soon realized, though, that it was worth spending 30 seconds to create his own folders and email rules and to continue receiving his feeds via Squeet. He says:
Then, about an hour later, I see the famous error in the bottom right corner of Outlook, that happens when your mail server is down, that says something like "Error / Can't Connect Blah Blah". What The .....
I realize that it's checking the RSS feeds.
It hits me.
Squeet is not just an RSS to Email tool. It's a bandwidth tool. I don't have to hit 80+ RSS feeds once an hour to get new content. With Squeet, all I have to do is check my mail. They do all the pinging and checking, and I get to sit back and wait for new content. They deal with broken feeds and all the other jazz that comes with RSS.
Scott's right. All Squeet users have to do is download new RSS articles from their email accounts, as opposed to checking each feed individually, determining if updates are available, and then downloading the new articles.
As an Outlook 2003 user, I know the last thing I would want to do is anything that slows down Outlook even more. Using Outlook to track 80 RSS feeds, would be like adding 80 additional email accounts and checking all of them regularly...ah, I don't think so. With Squeet, no overhead is added to Outlook.
In addition to the bandwidth savings that Scott points out, Squeet users have more advantages:
Use with any Email System
You can read your RSS feeds with any email application(s) running on any Operating System: regular app, web app, mobile device, etc. If you don't delete your emails from your server right when you download them with an email app, you'll have access to your feeds locally and online.
Online Feed Management
You don't need to be sitting in front of your Outlook app to make changes to your RSS subscriptions, delivery schedules, etc. Just log on to Squeet.com anywhere you have web access and manage your subscriptions. This also means you'll never lose your subscription information, even if your laptop is stolen, your hard drive takes a dive, or if your email database is corrupted.
Added Value
No matter what Microsoft does with implementing its RSS features into Outlook 2007, Squeet will add value to that baseline. Current Squeet users are (and have been) already getting Outlook 2007 functionality and more -- by the time Outlook 2007 is actually released and being widely used, Squeet users will be enjoying the functional equivalent of Office 2012. Squeet's like an Outlook RSS time machine. :-)
We're happy Microsoft is taking these steps toward popularizing RSS and educating the mainstream, because we believe in the medium, and it'll make what we do important to even more people.
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posted by angelo at 1:59 PM 2 comments links to this post
Friday, May 19, 2006
Monetizing Squeet
As Squeet continues to gain popularity and mature as a platform for delivering RSS feeds, the time has come for it to start paying some of its own bills. Squeet occupies multiple servers at its hosting facility, has several of us working to improve it, and is currently sending well over 2 million emails every month.
We're going to start by pilot testing the sponsorship of subscriber emails with text ads. The goal is to achieve a system that is of high value to sponsors while not diminishing the user experience at all. We also want to limit development time on it, so we can get back to adding features and making the system more robust. Sure, we've got to pay the bills, but our passion is for providing a great product to our users.
Starting later tonight, you'll start to see our first attempt at sponsored emails. Instead of using an ad service, we'll be using true sponsors who have a message relevant to Squeet's user-base. This will help us guarantee we can control the non-obtrusiveness and overall quality of our advertisers.
If you'd like to sponsor Squeet Reader emails, stay tuned for another blog entry with details. We'll have a great offer for our readers.
Let us know your thoughts by leaving your comments here or sending us an email at comments-at-squeet-dot-com. And, by all means, feel free to offer any ideas you have for executing this better or even for other monetization paths we could consider.
I want to make it clear that while we're pilot testing certain ideas, there are some things that are off limits, like charging publishers and/or readers for using Squeet or relaxing our commitment to those users' privacy. After all, there's a difference between monetization and selling out.
Technorati Tags: Squeet RSS Monetization Web2.0 Startup
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posted by angelo at 5:12 PM 3 comments links to this post
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Squeet Feed Directory
A feed directory has been added to Squeet Reader. It's divided into groups, so you can easily subscribe to many quality feeds pertaining to a specific area of interest. If you prefer, though, you can also subscribe to individual feeds within a group or across many groups.
The main benefits of the directory are:
efficiency
subscribing to many groups at once, instead of one at a time
feed discovery
when you view the feed directory, you will likely find many feeds of interest that you otherwise wouldn't have known about
As of this article's publication, there are three groups -- but about 20 more groups will be added within a short time. You can access the directory by logging in to your Squeet account and following the "Reader" link in the main menu at the top. Its sub-menu contains the "directory" link.
Technorati Tags: Squeet Feed Directories RSS RSS to Email
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posted by angelo at 12:02 PM 2 comments links to this post
Monday, May 15, 2006
Searching the Blogosphere...You've Got Options
Syndicated feeds have become a significant and distinguishable portion of the web: blogs, news, podcasts, custom user-generated feeds, etc. Well, sometimes you just want to search the "feed portion" of the web, to find an article or discover a new feed. There are several resources available to do this, and here are a few of the more popular ones:
http://www.IceRocket.com/
Ice Rocket scores points for offering unique feed searches and data. You'll also find a number of services and non-feed related searches. One of IceRocket's investors is everyone's favorite, opinionated, insightful, billionaire blogger - Mark Cuban.
http://www.technorati.com/
Technorati has become the default authority on the who's who of A-list bloggers and the what's what of blogger vanity. They've also established the blogosphere's premiere system of author self-tagging of articles. You can search by keyword or tag, and check out some of their other cool features. Technorati also features some pretty cool browsing features that let you see what is currently popular and being discussed all around the blogosphere.
http://blogsearch.google.com/
Here, you'll be able to thoroughly search the blogosphere inside that familiar Google interface. It's fast, easy, and to the point. To limit your search exclusively to Google's Blogger, follow this link.
http://www.feedster.com
For "timely information from news, blog, and podcast" searches...give Feedster a shot. It's straightforward design is similar to Google Blog Search's interface
http://www.blogdigger.com/
Blogdigger's got an especially nice interface, in my opinion. They present their search results sorted clearly by date (or you can search by relevance). They've got a tagging system, too, although I'm not clear on how they define these tags.
If you're interested in finding more, try a Google Search for "blog search ," "rss search ," or something similar...there are quite a few out there.
Technorati Tags: Squeet blog search engines blog search IceRocket Mark Cuban Google Blog Search Technorati Feedster Blogdigger
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posted by angelo at 5:18 PM 0 comments links to this post
Friday, May 12, 2006
Friday FeedBuzz Blast
Squeet FeedBuzz, which was introduced with the latest revision of the web site a few weeks ago, has been a blast to read. On the What's Hot page, it's been interesting to see which stories are generating buzz. A variety of articles ranging from politics to tech stuff, entertainment, health, etc. The feed version of What's Hot (Squeet It!) has been gaining in popularity, too...it's now the 7th most popular feed overall among Squeet subscribers.
Here's a sample of what's on the What's Hot page right now:
35 million names registered in April. 32 million were part of a kiting scheme. A serious problem gets worse.
Hot Points Subscribe
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Out of 35 million names 32 million were part of a kiting scheme. During the month of April 2006, a little more than 35 million domain names were registered. Of these names, 32.7 million were used...
Report: NSA building giant database of U.S. phone calls
CNN.com Subscribe
Read full story for latest details...
But the focus group loved it
Seth's Blog Subscribe John writes in and wants to know why I don't think much of focus groups. A properly run focus group is great. The purpose? To help you focus. Not to find out if an idea is any good. Not to get t...
Calorie Reduction for Longer Life
Damn Interesting Subscribe
Dr. Roy WalfordWould you be willing to semi-starve in order to live longer? More to the point, would you be willing to semi-starve simply for the chance that you might live longer? If you’re a member...
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It'll be even more interesting to see how the site evolves as more people start buzzing their articles. Early adopters have a lot of influence, and so do publishers who use Squeet to promote their feeds...the more subscribers they have on Squeet, the higher their chances of having one of their articles buzzed. As it gains popularity I wonder if we'll see similar stories and just more of them, or if the stories themselves will start leaning toward different topics and points of view.
It's also fun to take take a look at the What's New page, because it indiscriminantly displays articles as the Squeet servers download the feeds. Here, users are basically voting with their subscriptions and not their opinions -- so in that sense it's a good representation of what subscribers deem worthy of their eyeball time. The What's New page doesn't have a feed, because the volume would be crazy...it would be like subscribing to every feed that all Squeet users subscribe to. But, that's exactly what makes viewing it on the web entertaining...it's constantly refreshing.
Here's what I just found on page 1 of What's New
Iraqi Militias Biggest Obstacle, Bush Says
Newsvine - Get Smarter Here Subscribe
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President Bush said Friday that militias are the biggest roadblock to Iraq's effort to getting a unity government up and running, a goal that would help bolster the president's sagging approval rating...
Social-Network Sites Draw Mass Appeal
MediaWeek: Today's Most Viewed Articles Subscribe
Read full Story...
Who should be part of the innovation process?
Innovation Weblog Subscribe
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Joyce Wycoff, in her Heads Up on Organizational Innovation blog, points out that although many corporations are claiming they're committed to innovation, only a relative handful appear to be building...
Ignoring economic facts, Matthews claimed Democratic Party "hasn't done jack" for middle class
Media Matters for America Subscribe
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On the May 9 edition of MSNBCs Hardball, host Chris Matthews claimed that the Democratic Party "hasnt done jack" to improve the economic well-being of poorer and middle-class Americans. In fact, dur...
