Quantcast
Subscribe to magazine

Web News Wranglers

So much news on the Web, so little time to read it all. These tools and sites can help make you an incredibly well-informed person--in a hurry.

Ryan Singel

  • 0 Yes
  • 0 No

Illustration: P.J. Loughran
Technology advances quickly, but information grows at an even faster clip. The torrents of blog posts and news feeds on today's Internet hold way too much data to keep up with if you just browse the Web normally. Fortunately, help is here in the form of sites that filter the news for you with ever-increasing efficiency, and improved news readers that let you subscribe to news feeds and sort through them like e-mail.

For example, sites such as Digg rely on Web 2.0 techniques to turn users into editors. Other approaches include sites that mine the linking structures of top blogs to provide a front-page-news view of the Internet's conversations, and personalized news-recommendation engines that monitor your reading habits to bring you more-focused news.

What is the best news-management approach for you? We'll examine a number of sites, Web apps, and programs that can help you sort through the best news and commentary on the Net.

First, though, a little background: Almost all of these tools depend on RSS (for Really Simple Syndication) feeds--specially formatted XML files that sites use to quickly publish and exchange bare-bones information about new articles, blog posts, or other updates.

They're often identified on a Web site by a small, orange 'XML' button. (You can right-click the button or link, and then copy the link location.) Once you add that feed into a news reader, the software will periodically check it for new stories. Good news readers let you read through sites in half the time that you would take using a browser. Plus, if you're getting spam on one feed, you can just unsubscribe.

Of course, while feed readers can help you plow through stories quickly, they create a new temptation: Once you realize you've read your news in half the time, it's easy to subscribe to more and more feeds until you're spending as much time reading news as you did before.

  • Recommend this story?
  • 0 Yes
    0 No

"Web News Wranglers" Comments

Featured APC Accessories

  • APC Back-UPS ES Safeguards your equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel along your utility & data lines.
  • APC SurgeArrest Performance Highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection.

Deal Breakers

Special Offers for PC World Users

People who read this also read:

  • 15 Minutes to a Secure Business Get the Secure in 15 toolkit starting with the "15 Minutes Month-at-a-Glance" calendar. McAfee will send you additional tools and tricks to stay protected around the clock.
  • A Buyer's Guide to Data Protection Implementing data protection products and processes can be daunting. Make the right decisions by exploring what is available and what makes sense for your organization. Use this simple guide to evaluate different vendor offerings.

Sponsored Links