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Reblogging junk free webfeeds

You can filter out useless content and repost the relevant items onto another blog

A COUPLE of Blog related tools are featured in this week's NetSpeak.

The variety of information generation tools such as web publishing/IM/Wiki/vlogs has added a new dimension to information creation/dissemination. Different types of information products now compete for attention, a scarce and limited feature.

The phenomenon of attention scarcity has even prompted some analysts to suggest that we are moving towards an attention economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economics) as against an information economy. This points to the need for tools that weed out unwanted content to minimise the information glut.

Though newsfeeds help us bring some order amid this information explosion, still a lot of junk or irrelevant entries could creep in. One solution to counter the flow of junk through web feeds is to filter out the useless ones and re-post the relevant items found on the subscribed feeds onto another blog. This process of filtering webfeed posts and re-posting them onto a fresh blog is called reblogging (http://www.reblog.org/). In the past, NetSpeak has featured this concept and introduced a set of tools for implementing one's own reblog.

As mentioned in an earlier issue (http://www.hindu.com/biz /2004/04/05/stories/2004040 5 01091700.htm), for a reblog you need access to a web server with MySQL/PHP/PERL support. You can try out the free reblog hosting service (http://my.reblog.org/) which offers a webfeed reader with necessary tools for re-publishing selected items from the subscribed feeds onto another blog (reblog), also provided by the system for free. When you sign up with the system it gives you a newsfeed reader and a blog with the address http://my.reblog.org/reblogs/your-log-in-name. Also, prior to re-publishing, you can edit, comment or tag the item to be re-posted.

Blog search engine

Keeping abreast of the steady stream of blog posts is not easy. Blog search engines (such as Technorati, Blogdigger) help you find the latest blog postings/discussions on specific subjects. In this regard, the new blog search engine "Sphere" (http://www.sphere.com/) assumes significance. Besides helping you search for blog postings with specific keywords, it provides a facility for gathering web pages similar to the page being viewed. For instance, if you are reading an article on `web 2.0' and want to find articles related to this subject, the `SphereIt' facility of Sphere will come in handy. The `SphereIt' bookmarklet (http://www.sphere.com/tools) analyses the content of the current page and brings in search results with links to pages that match the topic of the page being viewed.

Answer services

A variety of services meant to provide answers to your queries are available on the Net. The on-line reference tool, Answers.com, mentioned in the past, is a good example. Right pronunciation of words is a feature noticed by this author recently on Answers.com.

Services like Answers.com present content already stored on various reference sources. Besides these, there are services where people can ask and answer questions. Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/), a fee-based service, is a good one. The free service, Yahoo Answers (http://answers. yahoo.com/), is another of this kind. Here, you can ask/answer questions and rate others' answers.

Generally, as part of collecting data, while hopping from site to site, you may bookmark pages, copy/store relevant information from web pages and sometimes save complete web pages. Besides being a cumbersome process, data gathered this way are restricted to one machine. A web based solution for easily storing/organising information on the Net will make on-line research an efficient and enjoyable experience.

Google notebook

Google Notebook, the latest service from Google, allows you to clip web page text content and images on to an on-line notebook. Even Google search output can be transferred to your notebook. For each subject you can create a separate notebook. In addition, you can attach your own comments to each entry. Also, you can make your notebook public for others to search/view. To use the notebook service, you just have to install the appropriate browser add-on/extension from the Google Notebook site (http://www.google.com/notebook/). Once the extension is installed on your browser, you will find the button 'Open Notebook' in the bottom right corner of it. To clip a snippet of a page, select it, right-click and access the `Note This' option.

Sabifoo: IM to RSS

Instant messenger service is one of the popular Net services. In the past, we discussed the service `Immedi.at' meant for sending newsfeed content on to an IM client like MSN Messenger (http://www.thehindu.com/biz /2006/01/09/stories/20060109 00831600.htm). As mentioned in that piece, `Immedi.at', which provides instant alerts as and when the content of your feed gets updated, helps you track content with your IM client. Rasasa (http://www.rasasa.com/) is another service of this type.

Now, if you are doing a collaborative project, you may need to share your IM conversations automatically with other team members. For such needs, you may find the IM to RSS service, Sabifoo (http://www.sabifoo. com/), quite effective. You can add `Sabifoo' as your contact and all the messages sent to this account will get added to the web feed provided by the system. This is an excellent way to generate content with your IM client. Also, you can make each of the messages public for others to view. Along with a webfeed the service provides you a web page, where you can view your messages. The service supports popular IM services such as MSN Messenger, Google Talk and AOL. To use it effectively, go through the help (http://www. sabifoo.com/help).

>J. Murali

He can be contacted at jmurali@gmail.com

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