LAS VEGAS -- NewsGator Technologies, an aggregator of information from news and blog sources known for its tight integration with Outlook, has updated its program to go far beyond Microsoft's e-mail client.
The new NewsGator will cost $29, and become available for download on January 19. The developer offered a preview at the Consumer Electronics Show here last week.
Subscription Service
The updated NewsGator invites users to also pay for a monthly subscription and receive headlines in most e-mail clients, in a Web browser, or on their mobile devices.
News aggregators collect headlines from Web sources like PCWorld.com or InfoWorld.com, and also entries from Web logs that offer Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. The information is typically short and in many cases the reader must go to the source Web site for the full text of an article.
While NewsGator's symbiotic relationship with Outlook was a great benefit for many users, it also causes some problems, according to Greg Reinacker, president of NewsGator Technologies. People who used Outlook at work want a way to view news feeds at home if they use another e-mail client. And they want to be able to see their headlines on the road.
NewsGator Online Services integrates with other e-mail clients by turning news feeds into POP3 e-mail messages. That way, users of Lotus Notes or Eudora can update their headlines as easily as they can check for messages through an e-mail account, Reinacker says. A monthly subscription to the service costs $5.95.
Other Options
By visiting the NewsGator Online Services page, users can also see the latest news from the sites they subscribe to in a Web browser. And by punching a URL into their HTML-enabled phone or PDA, they can grab their headlines on a mobile device.
NewsGator's Online Services will also synchronize accounts, making it easy to get the same RSS subscriptions no matter how you access the system, and will keep track of which posts you've already read or deleted.
Also new is the capability to create custom news feeds based on keyword searches. You need only plug in the name of a company or subject you're following, and NewsGator Online Services will gather blog postings and news stories that mention that keyword.
The monthly subscription provides access to premium content from InfoWorld and other sources. In the case of InfoWorld.com, subscribers will receive the full content of an article, not just a headline, so they can read the material when they are not connected to the Internet.
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