FeedDemon Releases a Toolbar for Firefox and IE

NewsGator have just released a toolbar for Firefox and Internet explorer. It is still in beta and from the review I have read I am not sure that I’ll be getting it just yet.

This is not an extension rather a download that is installed. I, like the reviewer don’t like the fact that it has been done this way. In addition is the fcat that it is a joint install for both Firefox and IE. I would like to think that this is a trend that has not started, please give us extensions for Firefox and a separate download for IE (if you want to subject yourself to that pain).

The toolbar does not seem to be feature rich, although it does let you know how many people are subscribing to a feed (NewsGator users only that is) and the ability to preview the feed. In addition the up and coming Firefox 2 allows you to integrate subscription to feeds for a specific feed-reader. So I am not sure where the toolbar idea is headed for FeedDemon. They had want to include some more features for me to add a toolbar to my browser as I am very protective of screen real-estate.

You can check out the original review and some screen shots on Cybernet Technology News. From the screen shot the toolbar looks to take up room and not have that much on it. Not great news considering that FeedDemon is a killer product and is feature rich in it’s own right. Then again this is a beta version and we will see what the end result is when the full version comes out, I might try it when it does.

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FeedReader Now Supports Enclosures

I was talking to my brother-in-law tonight and giving him a crash course in RSS feeds and podcasting and just how great the whole thing is. I think I left him sufficiently confused but excited about what it could do for him. That aside I was recommending a feed reader for him to try and I have always recommended FeedReader. I was very surprised to see that it now supports enclosures (and that includes podcasts!).

While I have not used this version which is FeedReader 3.02, I am sure that it is as easy to use as it was for me when I used it. I have used FeedDemon for some time now, one of the main reasons that I switched to FeedDemon was the fact that it is an all-in-one solution. It supports both feeds and lots of different types of enclosures including podcasts and I liked the idea of having it all in the one place. Essentially both these programs do the same thing; in that they now both support enclosures and read news and whatever other feed you wish to subscribe to. But now when I recommend a reader I won’t have to give an explanation as to why you can not get podcasts with it and why you need a program like Juice to do that. This makes FeedReader a very nice no cost alternative for anyone wanting to give RSS a go.

Juice is a very good Podcast aggregator. However I do think that it is not the easiest piece of software to use for a person that is new to RSS or podcasting. Now having the podcasting support in FeedReader means that a user only has to learn to use one program and not two. Both having very different interfaces. The other huge bonus for the end user is that FeedReader is still open source and still free! Which is great news all round in my book. The new version of FeedReader has some other great new and improved features so check it out!

So for my mates that I put onto FeedReader, go and update it to the latest version on the Download Page and shove your podcasts and feeds into it and let me know how easy/hard it is to use. I hope it makes it a lot easier for people to utilize RSS and enjoy podcasts.

What is RSS?

What is a podcast?

What is an aggregator?

Ok, so I have the software where can I go to find some great RSS feeds and podcasts?

• TechPodcast Network
• Feedster
• Podcast Alley
• The Podcast Network (Aussie Podcast Network)
• Ask.com

That should be enough to get you going I am sure you will start to notice RSS links and feeds and podcasts everywhere now.

Don’t forget to add Rooster’s Rail to your subscriptions and Global Geek Podcast! Here are the RSS feeds for those. Right click and copy the link and paste it to your reader of choice when you have selected to make a new subscription:

• Roosters Rail Blog – https://roostersrail.wordpress.com/feed/
• Global Geek Podcast – http://globalgeek.thepodcastnetwork.com/feed/

Ask.com Blog and RSS Feed Searching

I found this great search engine today. Part of Ask.com, you can now select to search Blogs and Feeds. It has also been reported on various blogs but there is a major error that I have not seen others post about.
There are a lot of feeds and podcasts out there now and finding what you are after can be a nightmare. Ask.com seems to make this process fairly easy. You also have the function of searching just the feeds. I also noticed that the addition of podcast in the search gets you on the right track as far as searching for podcasts.

You also have a number of options to use as a filter in your search such as Posts, Feeds, News as search areas. Then the option of displaying the results; relevance, most recent and popularity. As well as showing the results within certain time-frames such as hour, day, week and month. A nice touch is the “Top Feeds” that display on the right side of the search window. Nice because it can cut down your time in the quest for quality and the fact that I only got one result when I search for our podcast and it was there! Cool.

Once you find what you are looking for you can hover over the binoculars and get a preview of the feed or the site. One bug I have found in testing this is the fact that searched for Global Geek Podcast and sure I got the right podcast. But the preview plane was anything but correct, it was displaying feeds from I don’t know where. But some of the previews were from sites that linked to Global Geek Podcast. So that error probably has something to do with how the results are assembled. I hope they are going to fix this, they need to fix it.

Lastly there is the option to subscribe to the feeds through various mainstream feed readers such as Bloglines, Google Reader, NewsGator, but there is also a plain old RSS link as well. You can also post the result to a few services such as del.icio.us, Digg, Newsvine and Bloglines. The convenience is nice with an obvious slant towards the web based applications that are becoming more popular.

With time I am sure that we are going to see more search engines like this one with more options and intuitive searching, exciting. This is absolutely crucial to podcasters and the subscriber; to get what they want in a timely fashion. Otherwise the saturated choice that people are left with will be so baffling that they will not bother, or are we there already? Will this help RSS, Blogs and Podcasting to get out of the “Geek’O’sphere”?

FeedDemon 2.0.0.23: Update

It would seem from both the comments on the blog post and the prompt reply on email that the update of FeedDemon to 2.0.0.23 was indeed legit!

It is apparent that the silence from the usually vocal development team confused more people than myself, so I don't feel so bad about questioning it. Nick Bradbury has taken the concerns regarding this; on board and will let everybody know in the future of pending updates. Phew 🙂

But yet again NewsGator and Nick have proved, to me in any case, that they are committed to their user base and most importantly responsive to their concerns and wishes. Thanks guys.

I am just glad I was not fighting some rogue virus or spyware at this point in time… I think I would have definitely been kicking myself and asking others to do it for me when I had finished.

I just can not speak highly enough of this program and the support, I just love it for lots of reasons and this is one of them.

FeedDemon Update Concern

The other day FeedDemon told me that there was an update available. I thought that this was a little strange, given the fact that there has just been a major update correcting connection problems to the NewsGator server. Not only that both the FeedDemon and NewsGator community have been very quiet about it; as in silent.

So after I saw the invite to get a new version I went and got the new version. But why I thought it was strange was that this comes right on the back of a new beta tested version that addressed connection issues. I thought about that after I installed it, which I wished I had not. Even stranger still is the fact that nothing was said in the blog from Nick Bradbury or from the NewsGator News Feed. I thought then that maybe it was because they had not had a chance but now it has been a few days and still nothing. I suppose that usually what I would have expected was hey guys there has been an update for … whatever reason, not this time.

Worse, is the fact that this version seems to be a bit funny with stories not fully loading and I actually had it hang tonight for the first time ever. Then I thought maybe I have been had! That I had inadvertently installed a dodgy update… So what I have done is to shoot off an email to Jack Brewster at NewsGator Support. I only did that this evening and I am yet to get a reply, which I am sure I will have tomorrow. I will let you know the result.

This is  not to say that in the past updates have been issued without notice, just "feels" a little strange to me. That said I would like to know what the changes were, if it is a legit update. I was thinking that maybe it was updated due to the fact that they needed to do an urgent security update or something like that and they do not want to discuss the details, I truly do not know. 

Watch this space… I will be so peeved with myself if I have done a stupid thing…