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I want a context sensitive RSS reader

by Charlie Bess

Context sensitive web search has been talked about for quite a while. I've seen a few products but they were all expensive. Their goal was to find Web content based on what I was reading or writing, presenting the information to me in a subtle way.

When I was at the Blogging conference last week, I asked the rss tool folks if anyone was working on an RSS reader that presented information based on the my context (right now) automatically. It may be that I couldn't phrase the question effectively, or that I let them off the hook with the answer they gave, but it was clear they had not really thought about the possibilities.

Lately I have seen a number of posts by people about attention management (including me). With the growth of blogs and other information delivered via RSS feeds, there is no way I could ever find all the useful content that is out there. I know there is someone in the blogosphere writing about a similar concept as I am right now - somewhere. (P.S. Here is one that's close)

The business possibilities of this context based delivery approach would be significant as well. Allowing the subscription to a number of different feeds with only the pertinent ones being displayed to the situation at hand. Because the value is high and the technology is ready, it will happen someday soon. I just can't wait.

There are likely to be security concerns associated with this for the thin-client "everything done on the Internet" approach (Google Desktop?), but within the closed corporate environment the Web-based approach may work. With as much power as we have on the desktop today, tracking context and recognizing patterns should be able to be performed locally, but then the inter-application communications may be the limiting factor.

Well, we have to do something new and different with all the hardware capability on the desktop.

Published Wednesday, November 09, 2005 2:24 PM

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Comments

Posted by Charlie Bess Wednesday, November 09, 2005 4:39 PM

This link:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/index.php?blogthis=1&p=180

started be down a rabbit hole of activity in this space. Thanks, Stephen

Posted by Paul Renner Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:16 PM

Charlie, can you be more specific about what your current RSS reader doesn't do, but you wish it would? In my case, my RSS tool (Bloglines) cares not about my context, and I'm not sure I need it to. When I search for information, I'm really not interested in my answers coming from blogs. When I do want to search in this space, I think blog-based search tools are there (google's beta comes to mind).

I guess maybe we first need to define our expectations of different media. In old media terms, I would rely upon TV or radio to give me the general news landscape, but serious research required a trip to the library. Nowadays, RSS has taken the place of TV and radio, and specialized search tools (context based and otherwise) serve my more in depth research needs.

I'm not sure I want an aggregator looking over my shoulder and prodding me with news feeds all day. At least not anymore than I need Clippy the paperclip watching me clumsily build a spreadsheet ;-)

Thanks,
Paul Renner
EDS Network Engineering

Posted by Charlie Bess Thursday, November 10, 2005 2:59 PM

Actually, I do want the looking over the shoulder part. I just don't want the prodding me part! The user interface for programs that understand what I am working on needs to be different.
I need more subtle ways of making information available, without stealing my attention away from the task at hand.
Even though the "you've got mail" kind of alert has gotten more subtle, I don't know how many times I've seen a mail message alert and then dashed off to address it. Later saying, "What was I working on?" having no idea.
With the vast amounts of RSS accessible content out there, and the amount of assistance I could probably use, there needs to be a better way than the accidental or the "wow, I could have used that yesterday" approach in place today.

Posted by Colonel Nikolai Thursday, November 10, 2005 7:14 PM

RSS has other problems, though.

For instance, on my own blogging system, which I wrote myself, I have a number of features that simply do not find any way to express them via RSS. One feature people can post in such a way that only a certain number of other people can read what they say, meaning you can have groups form naturally around a subject that doesn't pollute other subjects and allows for a privacy encouraging more direct, specific communication. But the people need to be logged in, of course, so the system can identify them. But what about the people who insist on using RSS? RSS has no authentication scheme, and, more importantly, no concept of session.

Furthermore, the rules and practices around the RSS specification are so lax that many RSS readers have committed half of their code to dealing with malformed RSS feeds. Clearly this ingenuity would be better applied elsewhere instead of starting a browser war again on the RSS language.

Posted by Scott Rudy Thursday, November 10, 2005 7:25 PM

Have you seen blinkx [www.blinkx.com]? This search tool is based on desktop search product from Autonomy [www.autonomy.com], who just acquired Verity recently. Blinkx search integrates with several applications, supports numerous file types and suggests content from local and internet sources (including audio, video and even blogs).

Another differentiating feature is that it supports "smart folders", which search for content in the background while you work. You simply add some keywords, or give a folder some files to train the search. The results are downloaded and placed in your folder.

Posted by Marcia Loughry Tuesday, November 22, 2005 4:46 PM

I use the Smart Feeds feature of Newsgator to cull the web for the topics I define. The problem is that I have to go in and set up those topics, and that there is no hierarchy as to importance. My aggregated info is a mashup of good blog entries and articles liberally sprinkled with everything from eBay listings to advertisements. And it does not recognize duplicate entries.

I would love an intuitive service that feeds me relevant information based on the topics I've been working on. But there are privacy issues associated with that as well.