FeedCollectors, in private beta, is one of Jeff Pulver’s new projects. Like Dave Winer’s Share Your OPML, FeedCollectors provides a mechanism for users to upload their OPML file of feeds that they read.
There are subtle differences to SYO, though. Feedcollectors is also a social network where you can add friends and see what they are reading, and users can also create public collections, which are topical based feed collections. The most popular collection is called “NYC” and features a number of blogs on the city. Each collection can be tagged, rated and commented by users.
There are a total of 150 collections so far from the limited number of users who have access to the site. And like SYO, FeedCollectors is using this feed data to generate interesting data on people’s reading behaviors.
What I like best about these services are the data that’s created once a statistically relevant number of people upload their data. Seeing what people are actually reading, deep into the long tail, is compelling stuff.
Ah. Sounds like another way the “A-list” bloggers (aka blogs that got magically popular despite mediocre content, designs, and minds running the blogs) to segment themselves from the unwashed masses.
COUNT ME IN.
I posted on Feedcollectors a while back, it seems similar to Pulverati, here is my post (it focuses on the idea of an OPML folksonomy and river of news within the same service)
http://libraryc...onomy-and-more/
But if others can’t tag your OPML then is it a folksonomy, or is it just user tagging…maybe a narrow folksonomy…
http://libraryc...my-appropriate/
Comparison
http://libraryc...ist-folksonomy/
I also made a small review of feedcollectors few days ago. This service is well design but still young (several bugs annoyed me, but that the price of a beta access) , this review is in french :
http://www.2803...bonnements-rss/
Seems great. There’s a box I can fill out to get an invite.
How does this differ from Rojo? Seems quite similar, although the logic behind the interface appears more sophisticated… Do we need another feed collector?
-ag.
Disclaimer: I’m on the FeedCollectors development team.
First, thanks for all the great feedback. Andrew, we’d like to see FC become more than just an aggregator of feeds, although it’s great for that purpose, and we see a difference between other services. We believe FC has some great social aspects as Mike mentioned which increases the value in a community. Especially since these collections are very clearly user created, we can start to see how people, different kinds of people, organize and filter who they read, who they subscribe to. Right now it’s very easy to discover a feed or a set of feeds that interest you where before FC you would have never come across. We have some more great ideas to hopefully fill a void that is needed on the web today.
This site is a rip-off of feedbite.com .. We’ve been doing the same thing for months, but our beta is more open. We’re developing the features in public based on suggestions from our users.
I don’t think FeedCollectors is a ripoff of feedbite.com at all. There are a few similar ideas, (collection = bundle) but FeedCollectors seems to have a lot more of a social networking focus. FC also seems a lot more polished and put together than FB and really leverages the web2.0 stuff. Of course, both sites are still in beta (and performance seems to be a major issue for both as well) so we’ll see how it ends up. Competition is good, hopefully it will drive both sites to be better.
Looks better than it did when I dropped in last month. Still feels too geeky, though.
Joe, you’re right, I think that word is a bit strong. I was just a bit surprised to see this article. We’re taking a slightly different approach and growing more organically, we’ve been gradually adding more social networking features to the site because it has been naturally moving in that direction. And yes now that we have more users and more data we have noticed the need for performance tweaks, that is on the list.
Hi Pete, thanks for the input! We’re working on the “geek factor.” But RSS in general is a hard chasm to cross for the majority of people on the web. It’s a tough job, but I think we’re starting to get on the right track. I also think it will take a community effort to bridge this gap.
I like a simple feed reader/aggregator like Monkeychow (http://monkeychow.org). It’s definitely not as full of eye-candy as this, but its very full-featured and actively developed. Still, only for the DIY crowd.
Just to correct the record, there are no more performance issues at feedbite. Today you will find that the service is one of the best performing available.
disegno piacevole, lavoro grande
i’am really impressed!!
luogo grande:) nessun osservazioni!
Great site! Good luck to it’s owner!
sono eccitato circa questo luogo, buon lavoro!:)
disegno piacevole, lavoro grande
I’ll tell my colleagues about your page..!
Interfaccia comoda, colori piacevoli, buoni!
sono eccitato circa questo luogo, buon lavoro!:)
Ich fand gute und wichtige Informationen – dir zu danken.
luogo grande:) nessun osservazioni!
ooo! it’s one of the best sites ever!
luogo interessante, soddisfare interessante, buon!
work’s done the way it must be..! ^^
work’s done the way it must be..! ^^