In my ongoing quest for the perfect RSS reader, I’ve recently been introduced to Snarfer 0.5. This is a client side RSS reader with an interesting twist. The Snarfware gang have added what are essentially search wizards for EBay, Craigslist and the blogosphere. So, for instance, if you’re looking for specific item in a specific price range, Snarfer will create a search request, grab the RSS feed from EBay, and store the results in a folder. It’s persistent, and it’s intelligent. And, it makes buying and selling goods via EBay or Craigslist that much easier. Moreover, the Craigslist wizard actually lets you create searches which are multi-city searches. That’s something you can’t do using Craigslist directly.
Perhaps even more useful to me is the blog search mechanism. Specify a search term, and Snarfer will create a feed aggregating Blogdigger, Bloglines, Blogpulse, Feedster, Google Blog Search, Icerocket, MSN Search, Sphere and Yahoo! Search. It would be cool if they added Technorati and Digg as well.Â
Snarfer is free, although advertising funded. Their model makes the process of reading each post a little time consuming, because it means clicking past the ad. Hopefully as usage builds they will switch to a less intrusive model. And, for now, it’s only client side. In the future, I understand that it may be server based as well, allowing the holy grail of synchronized RSS reader feed lists. For now, it’s a great tool for a standalone PC.
Snarfer is a refreshing and new cut on creating and using RSS. Go try it out! It’s the first new thing in RSS that I’ve seen in a long time!Â
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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Alec,
If you want to bypass the preview window where the ad is displayed all you have to do is double click on the headline and it will take you right to the story.
ChiefSnarfer