The RSS revolution - Using RSS: An Explanation and Guide

Information Outlook,  Dec, 2002  by Steven M. Cohen

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By now, all librarians should be familiar with Moreover, a search engine that features more than 4,000 news resources. Moreover is worth a visit when you're researching news, but its content can also be viewed in RSS format, which has two advantages. First, if you're searching on Moreover, only the five most recent results are displayed. With the RSS format, many more results are provided. Second, you need not return to the engine to stay current on any topic, because new information will be provided to the news aggregator continually throughout the day.

There are two methods for obtaining feeds via Moreover. You can choose from a list of prefabricated searches (http://w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_rss.html). It may be in your best interest to look at these before attempting to create customized feeds. These feeds are based on categories--such as law, business, or finance--that will provide a broad view of a field of interest. Specific companies can also be found on the list.

If an appropriate search is not available, you can create your own RSS feeds from Moreover to be read on an aggregator of your choice. The default query URL for these feeds is http://www.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?o = rss&query=. Place the appropriate search term after this URL, and your feed will be created on the fly. For example, to monitor news from Sears, simply place the following URL into the chosen aggregation software: http://www.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?o = rss&query = sears. This method can be used for other types of searches as well. For Bill Gates, you would use the following query: http://www.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?o = rss&query Bill%20Gates. Notice the "%20" between the search terms. Again, not to worry-just place your terms after the default query, and the feed will be created for you. If your search involves two words, like "Bill Gates," just put a space between the words and the correct feed will be created.

As with Moreover, creating RSS feeds in Daypop is as easy as adding a query at the end of a URL search string. In this case, the URLs are as follows: http:// www.daypop.com/search?sort = date&t n&o = rss&q = for feeds from Daypop News, http://www.daypop.com/search?sort = date&t = h&o = rss&q = for feeds from Daypop RSS headlines, and http://www.daypop.com/search?sort = date&t = w&o rss&q = for weblog information. Users can create their own feeds from Daypop by adding a search term to the end of this URL string. Unfortunately, Daypop does not provide any prefabricated feeds, but creating them is simple enough.

In mid-September, Yahoo Finance tested RSS feeds, providing content on any public company. Soon after the quiet release of this capability, Yahoo decided to take it down, saying that it was only a test run. Yahoo, with its fairly large news following, was the first major portal to invest time in RSS. One hopes that more portals follow Yahoo's lead.

For those who choose not to download software, Bloglet will send any RSS feed via e-mail. Bloglet (http://www.bloglet.com), a free Web-based tool (registration required), was originally intended to provide weblog readers with a way to read multiple sites without having to go back to these sites every day. However, the only way to get content from a particular site was if the webmaster registered with Bloglet and if it supported the software that had been used to create the site. Thus, the number of sites that Bloglet could monitor was limited.