Google's AJAX feed api gives you a slideshow gadget for your iGoogle

I was browsing through Google code site when I noticed that Slide Show Control is now available as a gadget for iGoogle.
I have been interested in Google AJAX Feed API because, well, this site is about feeds and Google Code has taught me a thing or two.
The Google Gadget supports any direct feed that uses the MediaRSS extensions. In addition, it has configuration support for discovery of public Picasa Web Albums and tag-based search over PhotoBucket. We will most likely add other tag-based domains in the near future. Why not try to work it out with Flickr?
I read about this here; Google AJAX Search API Blog: Slide Show Control now available as a Google Gadget

Tags: Google, google code, google AJAXfeed, iGoogle, picasa, photobucket, flickr

Don't follow the feeds, make feeds follow you with Google Gears!

Google Gears (beta) has brought out a new dimension to how you interact with web applications! Since RSS Feeds, ATOM Feeds and OPML Feeds are our life blood, let's see what it could do to feeds! Will it give us feedotopia?

According the developer site, Google Gears consists of three modules that address the core challenges in making web applications work offline.

	LocalServer Cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) locally
	Database Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
	WorkerPoolBlogger: FEEDoTopia - Edit Post "Don't follow the feeds, make feeds follow you with..." Make your web applications more responsive by performing resource-intensive operations asynchronously

But where is the feeds or feed store, for that I had to go to another site! Yes to Google reader site!
But I got the Idea from an article on Google Blogger! According to the article Google Reader is the first application available for online and offline use. Once you have Google Gears installed, you can download your latest 2,000 items so they're available even when you don't have an Internet connection.
How do you do that? simply click the "Offline" link in the top right of Google Reader.

Tags: google gears, google reader, offline webapps

Feedotopia, social bookmarking and RSS

Content syndication and distribution on line is getting a shot in the arm from social bookmarking. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project 28% of Internet users have tagged or categorized content on line such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day on line, 7% of Internet users say they tag or categorize on line content.
I usually do it twice for my posts, once as blogger labels and then Technorati tags. So why all the fuss? may be just to organize one self, many selves!
But an article I read today says there is more to this tagging and labeling. Heidi Cohen, who teaches in New York University's Masters Program in Direct and Interactive Marketing, says in her ClickZ column (I learned about Heidi's column at Press-feed)that what makes social bookmarking importnat to marketers is that it's another cost-effective way to augment search marketing efforts, distribute content, and aid branding.

Social bookmarks are links allowing users to store, classify, share, and search content through a process known as tagging. Tags are a user-generated taxonomy that makes information easier to find. Social bookmarks can be applied to various types of content, including Web sites, blogs, PDFs, audio, video, photos, and tools.

Major social bookmarking sites include del.icio.us, Furl, StumbleUpon, and Google Bookmarks. TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden suggests adding commentary to bookmarks to aid search within the social media site. Social news sites such as Digg and reddit are often counted in this category. These sites can be important for reputation management and branding, notes SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin. To mitigate the effect of negative information about your company, create articles portraying your firm in a positive light and optimize them on these sites.

And it seems that all these should end up in RSS Feeds. Feedotopia, will take you to utopia of feeds, soon!

Tags: social bookmarks, RSS feeds, feedotopia, del.icio.us, Furl, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, Content syndication, technorati, digg, reddit

RSS Announcer comes to read your feeds, just like TV or youtube!

I thought I have seen all the RSS bots and readers. And I see that I have not! ;). Televirtual has announced Karina, the RSS Announcer based on their AiVATARS & AiCASTERS technology

Despite their small client PC or mobile phone footprints, AiCASTERS boast a range of complex expressions and gestures, which allow them to interpret and augment the information they deliver. This ability can be semantic-related or 'tagged' manually by an RSS editor, and allows them to bring added performance to the material they deliver. To match this performance we integrate only the best available synthetic speech solutions.

Televirtual's Rapid Information Delivery system is not limited to character performance. It can also manage. control and handle rich content including still photography, maps, diagrams or movies. The auto-generated result simulates a conventional TV news or information bulletin.

Tags: RSS Announcer, RSS feeds, TV, YOUTUBE