Recently, we’ve been posting about a number of tools (aka “bots”) to access information using various instant messaging (IM) services. One of our favorites is the BBC NewsFlash that works with AOL IM (AIM), Yahoo IM, and MSN Live Messenger. It delivers 5 news headlines at the top of every hour.

Earlier this week, we posted about Feed Crier which delivers RSS headlines via IM. So, in theory, your IM service becomes an RSS aggregator. It’s a interesting idea and potentially powerful mixture. However, contributing editor Pete Weiss reports, some features need a bit more work. Nevertheless, we think it’s worthy of your time and attention. For some of you it will serve as an introduction to attention profiling markup language (APML).

FeedCrier: An Overview
by Pete Weiss

Because I use both a IM and RSS clients, the entry concerning Feed Crier interested me. The interactive AIM ‘bot recognizes three commands:

SUBSCRIBE
UNSUBSCRIBE
LIST

The LIST command shows your current RSS subscription AND ALSO creates a temporary web page URL returned as part of the list output. You can then copy that (generally, don’t automatically click on IM’d ) URL into your browser to manage your subscriptions (in a way similar to the first two commands).

When subscribing to an RSS feed, Feed Crier immediately shows the (up to ?) 10 most current entries, but that may not happen immediately — there is some time lag. Also, if you are logged off of AIM and return after your RSS feeds have updated, you may not get notified of the updates that occurred during your absence.

An interesting under-the-covers feature of Feed Crier is something called Attention Profile. This from the linked web page:

Ability to profile your choices (”attention profiling markup language” APML)

What is an attention profile?

Feed Crier can create a profile of the topics you’re most interested in. We’ve got some tricks planned for using this profile to help you manage your alert volume. If you have an attention profile, we’ll let you export it as an APML file for use on other sites that support attention profiles. If you choose to create an attention profile, your list of feeds will be visible to Engagd, a service we use to manage your attention profile. Your IM screen name won’t be provided to them, and either will any personally identifying information. The contents of your feeds and the URLs of those feeds will be available to them. [...]

All in all, an interesting application of conversion of RSS to IM, but if your main interest is following updates to RSS feeds, then perhaps a standalone workstation application that give you more ability to control the timing and presentation of updates would be better for you.

Notes: Feed Crier Works with
+ AOL Instant Messenger
+ MSN Live Messenger (beta)
+ Google Talk, Jabber

A bookmarklet makes adding sites a one-click operation.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 and is filed under RSS, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.