Rivers and Streams of News

If you keep up with RSS, you might be familiar with the term River of News. If you haven’t, RSS Pioneer Dave Winer has written about this format for reading newsfeeds, explaining that the style is the closest thing to reading a newspaper. “Instead of having to hunt for new stories by clicking on the titles of feeds,” he writes, “you just view the page of new stuff and scroll through it. It's like sitting on the bank of a river, watching the boats go by.” (Read Winer’s full definition here.)

It’s an interesting concept that appeals to some users, and you can approximate the experience in your NewsGator Reader by clicking on a Folder instead of a Feed and letting it deliver you the “river” of feeds beneath it.

Kevin Cawley, director of mobile applications at NewsGator, says that users are already asking for this feature on our NewsGator Go! for Windows mobile application. He is responding with what he calls a Stream of News for the next version. You can read his explanation and see some screen shots of how it will work here.

Cawley sat down to talk about the adoption of RSS on cell phones and mobile devices and how quickly the technology is evolving. Listen to the six-minute podcast here.

On that same page, you will find other podcasts with some of our executives, employees and investors talking about various aspects and applications of RSS and what’s happening at NewsGator. We are adding new podcasts weekly, so while you’re at it, click on the NewsGator Subscribe button on the page to stay updated on NewsGator via podcast.

Comments

[Kevin Cawley]

Leland, I am really psyched about this feature in NewsGator Go! I think it is going to make a really nice usability enhancement for our mobile users!