Unique RSS Tools
As the masses have adopted RSS as
a more mainstream communication medium, Web 2.0
businesses and publishers have adopted unique
and unusual tools to manipulate RSS content. Here
are just some of the various RSS tools that are
currently available...
RSS To PDF
Feedbooks, a free RSS aggregator,
takes in RSS feeds and converts them into compiled
PDFs. The PDFs even include a table of contents.
Feedbooks is free to use, and registering will
provide access to more options. A similar alternative
is RSS2PDF, which is also a free online service
that lets you turn an RSS or OPML newsfeed into
a PDF.
FeedBooks - http://www.feedbooks.com/news
RSS2PDF - http://rss2pdf.com/
RSS To Image
RSS2Gif is a service that converts
RSS feeds to images. The conversion service is
a free web-based service.
RSS2Gif - http://www.navi-gez.de/rss2gif/
RSS To Email
RSSFwd is a free web-based service
that allows visitors to subscribe to RSS content
via their email address. The service polls the
subscribed RSS feeds, converts them into HTML-formatted
email messages, and then delivers them directly
to the subscriber's email inbox.
RSSFwd - http://www.rssfwd.com/
Email To RSS
MailBucket is a public email-to-RSS
gateway. Simply forward your email to your-user-name@mailbucket.org
and subscribe to the news feed at mailbucket.org/your-user-name.xml.
The generated RSS feeds are public and not permanent,
so keep that in mind.
MailBucket - http://www.mailbucket.org/index.html
Database To RSS
The SQL2RSS.PHP script allows you
to easily create RSS feeds from an SQL database.
The script currently supports the conversion of
MySQL databases to RSS feeds. When using the SQL2RSS
script, the publisher has complete control over
the content in the resulting RSS feed. Administrators
and publishers control the database query, which
allows them the flexibility to determine what
data is inserted into the RSS feeds from the database.
The SQL2RSS script allows users to easily convert
information that is stored in a database into
an RSS feed, for syndication and distribution.
SQL2RSS - http://www.sql2rss.com
RSS To Database
The RSS2SQL.PHP script allows you
to easily create SQL databases from RSS feeds.
The script currently supports the conversion of
RSS feeds into MySQL databases. When using the
RSS2SQL script, the publisher has complete control
over the content in the resulting database. Administrators
and publishers control which RSS feed fields are
used in the database, giving them the flexibility
to determine what data is inserted into the database.
RSS2SQL - http://www.rss2sql.com
Twitter
TwitterFeed is a service that will
automatically "twitter" any post that you publish
on your blog.
TwitterFeed - http://www.twitterfeed.com/
RSS To SMS
RSS to SMS is a free service that
sends messages to a mobile phone for every new
item posted to an RSS feed. Keep in mind that
normal text messaging fees from your telecom provider
apply, so this may not be ideal if a large volume
is involved.
Yahoo - http://alerts.yahoo.com/edit_feedalert.php?.done=http://alerts.yahoo.com/myalerts.php
Convert Text To Speech
SpokenText automatically converts
RSS feeds into speech. While this service is particularly
helpful to visually impaired individuals, it can
be used by anyone.
SpokenText - http://www.spokentext.com
Web 2.0 syndication tools are finally
catching up with the technology. There are a number
of unusual ways that businesses are utilizing
RSS feeds.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS
feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages
marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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