RSS reader!

Google Reader is probably the last website I still actually open. An RSS reader would put an end to that.

...I have no idea how to fit it into Digsby though. I can't help but think that it would be all cluttered and ugly.

I've personally found every use for Digsby right now, but if you added RSS I wouldn't use it, simply because I haven't found a use for RSS in my life.

I agree; it doesn't "fit" into Digsby very well.

Ever heard the phrase, "jack of all trades, master of none"? Don't become that! Limit yourselves, and excel at what you already can do.

Last edited by Spike (2008-02-15 22:30:50)

Yeah, I'd say that's overreaching.  A full featured email client can do that, or as you said, Google Reader.  Browsers like Opera and Flock can handle RSS no problem too :]

Spike, we usually try to follow that idea. As you said, we shouldn't try to spread ourselves too thin. Some people have asked for digsby to become a fully featured email client; I'm putting RSS reader on my wish list ;-)

Of course, we have plenty on our plate as it is. I have no idea if we'll even get around to something like this...so I guess I'm stuck with gReader for now. /sigh

I've had a friend request this, but the main problem he had was to describe what it would do, and how it would behave inside digsby.  I myself hardly use RSS for anything useful, so I didn't know how to respond.

If we could get feedback on what exactly people think an RSS reader in digsby would do, it would increase the chances of it being added.  I concur with the above: unless we know how do it right, we probably shouldn't try.

I personally would like to see more features for email before RSS, as Mike has mentioned.  (Since I believe we've got a good chunk of that already.)

Thinking about this.. I can see RSS on Digsby being used in one out of every hundred cases. My Google Reader is so chock full of feeds that if I let a week go by, I have over a thousand unread feeds. I use the iGoogle Google Reader module at least 3 instances per tab, and I have 9 tabs on my iGoogle all set per category (News/Local/National/Tech/Entertainment/Comics/etc) and at least three and at most twenty feeds per category. I go through many feeds per day (I certainly get fed... hah! (its late)).

Point is, for someone like me, I don't think it'd be feasible as I am subscribed to many feeds and I receive a ton of feeds per day. RSS support in Digsby would be ideal for five to ten feeds maximum. But then again, I'm sure it'd work with more quite nice if it was set up correctly.

If RSS feeds are supported though, aggregator services such as Google Reader MUST be supported (starring, marking as read, opening in browser, deleting, etc) otherwise for many it'd just be useless

I have some ideas but its late, if I get the chance later I'll come up with some visual models

Last edited by Zathman (2008-02-16 02:47:18)

I was thinking about RSS in a different light... To enable people to use social networks and websites that you haven't integrated inside digsby.

For example, Flickr, you could subscribe to your contacts RSS feeds and get notifications when they add new photos (even having them display in the pop up).

Twitter is another possible example, just subscribe to friends feeds and they popup in the bottom left like all your other social network goodness.


Currently, i have these things in Google Reader - i do not want digsby to become a replacement for this - it never could be, and like other people have said 'jack of all trades' is the wrong way to go. However these things do not sit well in google reader next to the latest news from engadget and bbc - they would be better suited to digsby, alongside facebook and myspace.

Last edited by fadetogrey (2008-02-16 05:53:17)

Hi,

It could be an icon in the tray, like the following Firefox extension:

http://www.markdbd.com/proyectos/google … _notifier/

would be great if we can create our own extension though.

i like the idea of rss integration, but like others i'm confused how it would work. I think it should possibly integrate with the windows default rss feeds. I think it would work in the same way as the email features in digs... small panel at the base of the contact list would expand to a list [same as email] then each feed would be listed, showing new items by default, with a periodic popup which would also be the same one as the email uses. Clicking on the rss would take you to the embedded web page in the browser as clicking an email does. Mark read/unread/show all could be options at the top of the list.

Currently i use feeddemon for rss, it would nice to be able to move this feature to Digsby too

Last edited by zombiefly (2008-02-16 12:08:15)

I'm sorry for such a late reply! But then again I didn't guarantee a reply...... hmm... Anyway here's my mockup:


» Zathman--Digsby_RSS_Feed_Mockup.png (599KB)

Last edited by Zathman (2008-02-18 09:46:07)

Wow.. that's pretty impressive Zathman. Nice work. I almost thought there was a new version of Digsby out.

Its not complete, I just pushed that out because it was so late (117am). I still have to dream up how it should look for Digsby to show an article without necessarily having to open it in the browser.

Anyway I just want to reiterate, I probably wouldn't use this feature heavily unless it integrated with Google Reader somehow, but I'd still find a use for it I'm sure

Last edited by Zathman (2008-02-18 09:53:24)

LoL, RSS feed would be nice,  but should be last on the list of things to add.  If this was the case, I would say make it a Add-on as usual .

wow that's a really amazing mockup!

and it seems like it would work great if you only have a few stories, i think all of our fears will come true when you have 50, 100, 200 new stories. could be daunting to look at...

@mike and Zathman:
Very nice mockup indeed! Suddenly I can see use of this. And regarding 50,100,200 new stories, it's all about just showing 8-ish on each page and then do next/previous. If people are stupid enough to add like 40 feeds and don't check them often, it's their problem imho.

A separate feed window would probably be required with articles grouped together by feed. That way its still organized and not too overwhelming.

I've added a RSS reader entry to the wishlist. Go vote if you'd like this!

I voted.  Digsby does a great job of collecting the stuff you check often into a single window...including RSS feeds seems like the obvious feature that makes that complete.  I don't think a complete reader should be the point, but Zathman's pic is what would be perfect.  The only difference is I'd want to be able do it as groups so you could have as many separate items on the main bar as you want, each one having as one or more feeds.  I'd have one for a couple news sites I read alot and one for google calendar feeds.
Really great job on Digsby, I've been hoping to find something like this.

b

I like the mockup, that was exactly what i was thinking it would look like, voting!

I've emailed twice about RSS integration.  Namely with Google Reader.  You have an amazing interface with GMail, if you can do something similar with GReader...I will love you even more...if that is possible.

If you go with standard RSS implementation, please include an OPML importer or something.

Last edited by SajanParikh (2008-03-28 01:19:15)