Re: [syndication] One publishing problem keyword filtering might address

["Bill Kearney" <ml_yahoo@ideaspace.net>]

> Ultimately what I want is 15 or so headlines on my web page that
> refresh every 30-60 minutes based on automated searches of 100 (or
> maybe 50, or 25) news sources. Basically, it's what you get from
> Moreover.com or Yellowbrix, but I don't want to pay $6000/year for a
> custom feed for my nonprofit.

This cuts right to the issue.

Content doesn't just miraculously leap into digital form.  Someone's got to
collect and manage the delivery of it.  Moreover and the like do this at pricing
/dramatically/ lower than it's ever been before.  At some point the pricing will
ratchet to another level.  We are not as that point yet.

> I could also do this with Nexis -- almost. I could have Nexus email
> me search results, but then I'd have to go and get URLs for those
> articles every hour and update my site accordingly. An impossible
> thing to do manually unless you do absolutely nothing else.

Or pay someone to do it for you.  You want it but you won't sacrifice your time.
Why should anyone else?

> I'm not sure, from an electronic standpoint, what actually would be
> happening to "filter" RSS feeds with my search terms. Would a spider
> be visiting the sites supplying the feeds (which might be bad
> etiquite -- that's a lot of spidering) or would those feeds be
> sending stuff to something on my end, which could then be filtered
> according to my search terms, thus avoiding any ethical dilemnas
> about bandwidth? As a non-programmer, I don't know what actually
> would be happening.

Being a programmer I can tell you my perspective on this is /because/ of what I
DO know about content handling.  It's easy to "think it ought to work" in a
given way,   It's another thing entirely to be the "wizard behind the curtain"
that makes it appear effortless.

> Another way to pose my question: with so many people developing
> software that almost does what Moreover and YellowBrix do for
> $6000/year, why hasn't anyone gone the extra yard to actually provide
> something that can be downloaded for free or for $100 or so, that
> does the same thing? I'm not the person to do it -- I'm too busy
> being a website editor. And as a non-programmer, I don't know how
> difficult it is to go that extra yard.

What they do is not limited to simple bit pickup and transformation.  They do
provide editorial and other services.  You just don't see it (nor do they seem
to promote it, but that's an entirely other mystery).

> Such a program would not solve every problem faced by every person
> who has every asked about filtering RSS feeds using keywords -- but I
> think automated searches of the type I'm describing can work,
> provided you're familiar enough with the behavior of the publications
> you're filtering and you're smart about use of search terms.

Which rapidly degrades.  It's that "provided you're familiar" broad brush that
glosses over the incredibly complexiity behind trying to automate this stuff.

> P.S. Since I wrote this, Carl tells me Nexis might have the
> functionality I seek, maybe, but I'd have to make like a programmer
> and find out how xml works... sheesh...

Yeah, it's not like the content players are idiots.  They do keep up with much
of this stuff.

-Bill Kearney