ReadWriteWeb

Anothr - Real-time News Tracker

Written by Corvida / May 25, 2008 1:52 PM / 7 Comments

When it comes to staying up-to-date on the news, RSS is the best thing that could have ever happened to the web. You've probably subscribed to a ton of feeds by now through services such as Google Reader or software like FeedDemon. Instead of waiting impatiently for these services to give you the news you need immediately, why not try out Anothr from iNeZha.

Registration and Setup

First head over to the site and register for an account. Registration is quick and easy so you'll be ready to start in no time. Anothr gives you three ways to receive instant updates:

  • MSN Messenger
  • Sype
  • Google Talk

You can also set up Anothr to get subscriptions via email.

. After selecting your client you'll be asked to add the iNeZha robot to your contacts. If successfully added, you should receive a message from the bot soon after. If a problem occurs or you wish to change clients, there's a "delete and start over" button to restart the process. The bot will first give you a host of information such as news updates about iNeZha and keyword commands for navigation purposes.

Adding Feed Alerts

To get started, either type in a site URL or just send a keyword to the iNeZha bot and you'll be given a list of feed results that match and a link to the feed profile. For example, if you type in "ReadWriteWeb", a list of feeds pertaining to ReadWriteWeb would be instantly sent back to you with a link to the profile of each result. Each profile allows you to view the latest updates, the number of users sharing a feed, related feeds, tags, and a host of other information.

Once you've found your feed you can easily add it from the site or from the bot with a keyboard command.

Alert Functionality

Your alerts should instantly start rolling in through your IM client. From here there are a variety of things you can do. There are plenty of simple and easy to remember keyboard commands that you can instantly access by typing in '?' or 'menu'. Using the provided keyboard commands, you can share any of the items to Twitter, bookmark it via Del.icio.us, or share it with your friends on Anothr. Reading a feed from any of your alerts is a simple as typing in 'Read: [id number]. ID numbers are provided with every feed you subscribe to and also for every item in a feed. You can also go back and search through your list of feeds for certain keywords and the iNeZha bot will return results only from the feed items that match your query.

Bundling Your Feeds

You can invite friends to subscribe to your personal bundle of feeds. Just enter in your username for the provided services such as Flickr, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, Last.fm, Youtube and more. When pairing your Twitter account with Anothr, you can automatically share your subscriptions, IM moods, and bookmarked articles to Twitter without the need to type in a keyboard command to the bot. Head to your profile to track who's subscribing to your bundle and more.

Get Your News Instantly

Ironically, Anothr isn't just "another" real-time tracker. There's a host of features to explore, many ways to stay up to date, and share your findings with friends. While we wouldn't say it will replace feed readers such as Google Reader or FeedDemon, it sure beats waiting for those services to update you with the latest. For the news that just can't wait, Anothr is a great service to get it instantly.

Comments

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  1. Just signed up for it. Imported my feeds from Google Reader and I'm ready to go. Let's see what this tracker can do.

    Thanks for pointing it out.

    Posted by: MrCooker | May 25, 2008 2:52 PM



  2. you shoudl check out Of The Now!


    http://news.80concepts.com

    which is "literally" news of the now...

    Posted by: joe v. | May 25, 2008 5:24 PM



  3. Corvida: Thanks for your support! Founder & CEO of iNezha.com

    Posted by: Jimsang | May 25, 2008 5:35 PM



  4. @MrCooker: In fact, if you are subscribed to a descent number of feeds with some of them frequently updated you will soon find yourself buried under tons of updates with only a small portion of them that you actually need to see instantly. When I first started using Anothr some months ago, I had the same approach but I ended unsubscribing from everything and started adding the feeds one by one - only those that I actually wanted to be notified of instantly.

    Another use that I have for Anothr now is subscribing to comment threads on the blogs: when I leave a comment and want to be notified of subsequent comments, I use the comments feed to subscribe in Anothr and instantly see if someone wants to continue the conversation with me.

    Posted by: Svetlana Gladkova - Profy | May 25, 2008 7:55 PM



  5. @Svetlana: I was about to take the same route as @MrCooker. Thanks for the tip

    Posted by: Sachendra | May 25, 2008 11:09 PM



  6. @Svetlana - I really like you idea of using it subscribe to comment threads that you have participated in. I've been thinking about how to keep up with my comments without increasing the size of my inbox.

    Thanks for another great review Corvida.

    Posted by: Kim Woodbridge | May 26, 2008 4:54 AM



  7. For a similar, but simpler, service check out IM Feeds. It also supports AIM and Yahoo Messenger, both of which aren't supported by Anothr.

    Posted by: achillean | June 1, 2008 11:35 PM




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