Reuters RSS Feeds
May 6th, 2004Suweeeeeeet!! (Sorry Karen, this one deserves two explanation points)
And just in time for my presentation tomorrow for the Westchester Library Association.
One issue with the Reuters Feeds. I’m all for huge news companies providing content via RSS, but I think they need to take it one step further. I want customized feeds for specific keywords (like Wired does). Whenever I discuss RSS with colleagues, I usually say something like, “Sure, I can get the New York Times in my aggregator, but big deal.” Would I read these stories online or (GASP!) the print edition if they weren’t coming into my aggregator? probably not. Is that a good thing? Probably not. Aggregators are supposed to break don the barriers of the so-called “information overload”, not add to it. RSS is made for customization, I just know it.
Once we get past these initial stages of content providers providing feeds (and getting excited about it - believe me, I’m excited about it; hence the two explanation points above), users are going to demand customization.
Psst. Fellow librarians who work on the back end of library catalogs, here is your chance to shine. Psst. Hey, WilsonWeb, get out there and provide customized feeds. Take the hint from Westlaw. (link via Scripting)