6 ms·

Feedity: Create RSS Feeds From Any Website

15 points by greengirl512 17y ago

brandnewlow 17y ago
Note to Usefultools.com team. When I click on the big beautiful screenshot of the site I'm reading about, it should take me to the site, not to the screenshot.
- evdawg 17y ago
  Note to Usefultools.com team. When I click on a link called "Feedity: Create RSS Feeds From Any Website" I expect to go straight to http://feedity.com/ http://feedity.com/. Please stop linkjacking!
  - josefresco 17y ago
    Give credit where credit is due. If the Usefultools team did the legwork and found this app and did a write up there's nothing wrong with linking to their article.
    - brandnewlow 17y ago
      Agreed. I knew HN people would be annoyed when I clicked through, but I also thought this was kind of a neat idea for a site.
  - greengirl512 17y ago
    I'm sorry. I definitely didn't mean to offend anyone-I'll start labeling reviews as such in the titles when I post them on HN.
- greengirl512 17y ago
  Reply to brandnewlow: Currently, the link to the site being reviewed is below the screenshot-I'll see about getting it moved. Thanks for the suggestion!
nimbix 17y ago
This has been done dozens of times already, usually with better results. For the example I tried (a table listing events) it's only picking up the site's "register" and "add to favorites" links and there seems to be no way of telling it to create a feed from different content. It needs more work.
- brandnewlow 17y ago
  "This has been done dozens of times already, usually with better results." Links?
  - ciscoriordan 17y ago
    http://www.diffbot.com/apps/feedbeater http://www.diffbot.com/apps/feedbeater http://www.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp http://www.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp http://www.feedxs.com http://www.feedxs.com http://www.allwebdesignresources.com/webdesignblogs/graphics/turn-html-web-sites-into-rss-feeds-20-tools-converters-for-html-to-rss-conversions http://www.allwebdesignresources.com/webdesignblogs/graphics... There are a lot of good alternatives to Feedity, and none of them seem to be very popular. I've been in a couple situations where these tools came in handy, but these days most sites with periodic content already have an RSS feed. These tools all seem to have similar problems with content detection. I think it would be pretty cool if someone made one based on visual pattern detection instead of parsing HTML. But the number of people who could benefit from these tools and understand their usefulness is pretty small, so I don't think there's much point in doing a startup around this problem. Also, with Feedity's paid plans, I'm worried that it will be used by sleazy people to "repurpose" other people's content.
  - dc2k08 17y ago
    I was recently looking for one of these and found feed43.com. It's a lot more complicated so it probably doesn't attract the casual user but it is very useful. you can apply a template to your feeds and pick out as many parameters as you need and then sort them in what ever way you would like them to appear. Only problem is, it seems to be down often enough. I would use feedity's service if it was similar. At the moment, only offering a link and title - it doesn't suit me needs.
nreece 17y ago
Thanks for the review, and posting it on HN. What started out as a project inspired from a data mining assignment (back in uni), is now a simple service being used by paying customers, including US state government agencies, libraries, news aggregators etc. Yes, many websites these days already have RSS feeds, but from what we've seen so far - RSS still has a long way to go before the average Internet user starts utilizing them. We just introduced some new features, and revamped our service plans. More on our blog @ http://blog.feedity.com http://blog.feedity.com
mshafrir 17y ago
Can this be effectively used for screen scraping?
Semiapies 17y ago
I've yet to use one of these site and have a feed actually work for more than a couple of weeks. Anyone have better experience?

15 points by greengirl512 17y ago

Note to Usefultools.com team. When I click on the big beautiful screenshot of the site I'm reading about, it should take me to the site, not to the screenshot.

evdawg 17y ago
Note to Usefultools.com team. When I click on a link called "Feedity: Create RSS Feeds From Any Website" I expect to go straight to http://feedity.com/ http://feedity.com/. Please stop linkjacking!
- josefresco 17y ago
  Give credit where credit is due. If the Usefultools team did the legwork and found this app and did a write up there's nothing wrong with linking to their article.
  - brandnewlow 17y ago
    Agreed. I knew HN people would be annoyed when I clicked through, but I also thought this was kind of a neat idea for a site.
- greengirl512 17y ago
  I'm sorry. I definitely didn't mean to offend anyone-I'll start labeling reviews as such in the titles when I post them on HN.
greengirl512 17y ago
Reply to brandnewlow: Currently, the link to the site being reviewed is below the screenshot-I'll see about getting it moved. Thanks for the suggestion!

nimbix 17y ago

This has been done dozens of times already, usually with better results. For the example I tried (a table listing events) it's only picking up the site's "register" and "add to favorites" links and there seems to be no way of telling it to create a feed from different content. It needs more work.

brandnewlow 17y ago
"This has been done dozens of times already, usually with better results." Links?
- ciscoriordan 17y ago
  http://www.diffbot.com/apps/feedbeater http://www.diffbot.com/apps/feedbeater http://www.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp http://www.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp http://www.feedxs.com http://www.feedxs.com http://www.allwebdesignresources.com/webdesignblogs/graphics/turn-html-web-sites-into-rss-feeds-20-tools-converters-for-html-to-rss-conversions http://www.allwebdesignresources.com/webdesignblogs/graphics... There are a lot of good alternatives to Feedity, and none of them seem to be very popular. I've been in a couple situations where these tools came in handy, but these days most sites with periodic content already have an RSS feed. These tools all seem to have similar problems with content detection. I think it would be pretty cool if someone made one based on visual pattern detection instead of parsing HTML. But the number of people who could benefit from these tools and understand their usefulness is pretty small, so I don't think there's much point in doing a startup around this problem. Also, with Feedity's paid plans, I'm worried that it will be used by sleazy people to "repurpose" other people's content.
- dc2k08 17y ago
  I was recently looking for one of these and found feed43.com. It's a lot more complicated so it probably doesn't attract the casual user but it is very useful. you can apply a template to your feeds and pick out as many parameters as you need and then sort them in what ever way you would like them to appear. Only problem is, it seems to be down often enough. I would use feedity's service if it was similar. At the moment, only offering a link and title - it doesn't suit me needs.

nreece 17y ago

Thanks for the review, and posting it on HN. What started out as a project inspired from a data mining assignment (back in uni), is now a simple service being used by paying customers, including US state government agencies, libraries, news aggregators etc. Yes, many websites these days already have RSS feeds, but from what we've seen so far - RSS still has a long way to go before the average Internet user starts utilizing them. We just introduced some new features, and revamped our service plans. More on our blog @ http://blog.feedity.com http://blog.feedity.com

mshafrir 17y ago

Can this be effectively used for screen scraping?

Semiapies 17y ago

I've yet to use one of these site and have a feed actually work for more than a couple of weeks. Anyone have better experience?