Finding Snakes on a Plane in NewsGator

When people sign up for NewsGator, they often ask, "now what?"

To help you better find content relevant to your interests, there are several ways within NewsGator's Web Reader to search for feeds of interest.

In the upper left corner of your Web Reader is the Add Feeds tab. Clicking on this takes you to a page that offers two ways to find feeds. First you will see a list of categories, which is known as a taxonomy, a top-down hierarchy of subjects.

There are more than twenty basic categories to choose from, and clicking on one will often show more subcategories below to help hone in on content you really want. Some categories don’t have subcategories; others, like Sports, have numerous subcategories that allow you to better locate your area of interest.

Once you get into a category or sub-category of interest, you will be presented with a page of feeds and the chance to subscribe by clicking on the link on the right side of the page. Subscribe to any feeds that look interesting. (If a feed winds up being not what you want, you can unsubscribe by placing your mouse over the feed in the web reader, right-clicking and clicking Unsubscribe.)

So let’s say you are looking for feeds that feature news commentary. Click on the News category and you’ll see a list of sub-categories. One of those is News/Pundits-Blogs. Click on that, and you will be presented with a list of bloggers who work both sides of the political scene.

Another way to find the feeds you want is by using the NewsGator search function. Type in a keyword or phrase (ie. Snakes on a Plane), and NewsGator will serve up any feeds in our system that correspond to your search term. (You’ll find a funny account of one person to attend a screening of the film, a recurring comic strip, blogs and official merchandise, among other feeds.)

On the left side of the page, below the Web Reader, is NewsGator Latest Buzz, which lists the most talked-about articles according to NewsGator users. It’s a good barometer of popular topics on the Web.

Finally, you can also click on Recommended Feeds, which takes you to a page titled Editor’s Choice. There you will find a list of posts from feeds in our taxonomy and the chance to subscribe to any feed with a single click.

Happy hunting.

FYI: Security concerns about RSS feeds were brought up at the recent Black Hat USA Conference. In response to the concerns, NewsGator this week added some additional security measures. You can read more about this here

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