Taking RSS into your own hands

BiblioTech Web has recently featured a cool new service called Page2RSS. While most sites now provide RSS feeds, there are inevitably some out there that do not, making this tool especially useful.

Even better, it's so simple to use. You may either go right to their website and enter the webpage you want to monitor in a box that will convert the web address to RSS, or you can add a button or bookmark to your browser toolbar. Once Page2RSS has converted the web address to RSS, simply copy and paste the link into your favorite aggregator.

Being a fellow RSS Bigot , I began wandering around the web a bit to find some interesting mashups that incorporate RSS.

Something that immediately caught my eye is an RSS mashup site called BaeBo. The RSS Weblog give a great description of Baebo:

“[BaeBo]acts as a meta search engine reaching into Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Flickr, YouTube, and Technorati. You cannot mash all the search results into one feed, but you can merge Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo! Shopping into a single product feed, which is damn convenient. The site is weak on design, but it works. Used to be called Longtail, but (according to a posted explanation) that term has been trademarked by its popularizer, Chris Anderson. The mashup site is now called BaeBo, and is operated by Fancis Shanahan. (BaeBo is the language spoken in the Solomon islands ... perhaps it has other meanings, too.)”

Apparently, BaeBo's results may also be viewed through WML on your Blackberry you feel so compelled to go that route.

RSS Alley, created by Adam Green, uses Google Maps APIy to display the locations of some companies and bloggers actively working with RSS in the Boston area. Green writes that,
“Boston has become a center for innovation based on the RSS standard, so it is fitting that it be known as RSS Alley.This map displays the locations of some of the companies, blogs, and people actively working with RSS and OPML in the Boston area.” Submissions to RSS Alley are made by sending an email to Green.

PackageMapping.com allows you to track your UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL packages with Google Maps and RSS feeds. You simply enter your tracking number and up pops a detailed manifest of your package's details as well as a map showing your package's route. Too cool.

Finally, SixDegrees mashes RSS feeds with the ClearForest Content Analysis Services API, finding the connection or six-degrees of separation between topics. The real value of this mashup is detailed by the author of SixDegrees, Francis Shanahan, who notes that “should you so desire, I have exposed the capabilities of the service through SOAP and REST interfaces so that developers can build on top of the data collected.” Admittedly, much of what Shanahan says about SixDegrees is over my head, but the concept sounds pretty intriguing to me.