Productivity Portfolio

What is Feed Digest

I think the easiest way to describe Feed Digest is to think of a RSS blender with advanced controls. You can create your digest by adding multiple RSS feeds and then manipulate the results to your liking. By manipulating, I mean you can adjust the output so only certain stories show and in a certain format. For this reason, many webmasters like the service because one option allows them to get the code to post a new feed on their site. The service also does a good job of filtering duplicate RSS stories by title.

It was a story duplication problem that led me to the service this past January. At that time, the service was called RSS Digest and was in beta. Earlier I had created a custom feed using Sphere to follow developments on a local company. The nice thing about Sphere is that it gathers info from many feeds into one. However, many stories were syndicated so each time a different newspaper picked up the same story, it showed in my feed. This is great if you’re trying to gauge press exposure, but not if you just need to read the content once.

The service has moved out of beta with a new name and pricing plan that should agree with most users. The yearly fees range from free for five digests up to an enterprise plan with 1000 digests for $2400.00.

Creating a Feed Digest from RSS Feeds

The service should appeal to people that are short on time, but keen on info. As example, let’s say that I’m interested in taking a trip in the next year to Patagonia or Galapagos. I could spend my time reading various travel RSS feeds. The reality is that I don’t have the time to read all the stories. I just want to focus on stories than mention these travel destinations. Using Feed Digest, I can create a digest from the following RSS travel feeds.

• NY Times Travel section feed
• Forbes.com travel news feed
• Recce Literary Journeys feed

The first step is determining the source of your data. I knew in advance that I wanted to use the above sources. I could also have typed a URL like http://www.timeatlas.com/ and let Feed Digest detect if a feed was available. On rare occasions, you may find a feed doesn’t work. I had this issue with a blog using Type Pad. I’m still trying to find out where the problem resides.

Update: (04/18/07) Peter Cooper of Feed Digest responded to my issue and diagnosed the problem. I had copied the URL link for a Type Pad blog that was using its own domain instead of Typepad.com. I needed to use the source feed which resides on the typepad server.
 
After I defined my first source feed, I applied a filter query. The service does require you to build out the first feed and query. You can then go back and edit the digest by adding the other feeds. In the screen snap below, you can see I only want to search these four RSS feeds for stories about Patagonia or the Galapagos. I could further refine my query by adding negative keywords with a minus sign. Typically, I don’t add negative terms until I’ve seen enough stories flow through.

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Once you’ve created your digest, you can get the information outputted in different formats. If you’re a webmaster, you might like to grab the code and post the results on your site. In my case, I wanted to use RSS and add the feed to my RSS reader.

Editing Your Digest

Apart from the output options, there are more ways you can configure your digest. Clicking the Edit this digest link opens your Control panel with more selections. This is where you can adjust all the settings to your digest ranging from the sort order to the query terms. This is also where you find your options to filter out duplicate stories. Although my digest probably wouldn’t incur duplicate items, I still like to filter for items with the same title.

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Once you save your changes, your Control panel will provide a link at the top for you to see a HTML preview your digest. This step helps ensure that your filters aren’t too tight.

I find Feed Digest is very versatile and can handle so many different needs. There are a couple of nits such as I would prefer to be able to add several feeds at once. I think the company is heading in that direction as I see an experimental option. I also think the company should make the pricing plan more obvious even though you can get started for free. Overall, I give it high marks. If you’re an avid user of RSS, I’m certain you can find a way to make your feeds more relevant using this Feed Digest.

URL: www.feeddigest.com/
Cost: Free and upwards
Rating: ★★★★☆

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