Inbox 3.0 Brings Better RSS to Outlook
NewsGator is a company that develops RSS aggregators for individuals and businesses. It is the maker of the popular FeedDemon RSS Reader for Windows and NetNewsWire for Mac. Today, NewsGator has announced a new version of their RSS Reader, designed specifically for users of Microsoft Outlook.
The new program, Inbox 3.0, offers several new features including enhanced relevancy, attention reporting, easy subscription adding, flag synchronization and a redesigned UI.
Attention Data
You may remember back in January, NewsGator began giving away many of their products for free, including FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and others available here. What you may not have realised is why.
As it turns out, the power of their newly expanded community is being utilized to form the backbone of the company's relevance engine. When you flag an item, email a clipping, save a clipping, etc., this anonymous usage data is sent back to NewsGator. (This was fully disclosed by the company and can be turned off, if desired. Read more in the FAQ).
By combining this "relevance metadata," NewsGator can provide their users, like those using Inbox 3.0, with the most relevant news and information while also keeping track of what subscriptions you care most about and allowing you to export this information in APML (Attention Profiling Mark-up Language) so it can be shared with other services.
If you go to "My Reading Habits," from the toolbar, you have the option to export as either APML or OPML. The APML option sorts your feeding by attention - that is by how much you interact with the feed. This APML file can then be imported into other programs.
Exporting Attention Data
NewsGator's Nick Bradbury is a big proponent of APML, having joined the APML Workgroup back in October. Unfortunately, though, although the program exports APML, there is no import APML feature, nor was there a way to import the APML to my other NewsGator program, FeedDemon. However, according to an older post on Bradbury's blog, import is supposed to be the next step they focus on, so we hope to see import support soon.
In addition to the attention and relevancy improvements, the new version of Inbox 3.0 offers a new UI which is designed to fit in more with Outlook 2007's look and feel, and easy subscription adding. Also, the flag synchronization feature syncs flagged items between different computers running Outlook but also between NewsGator's Mac and PC RSS readers – NetNewsWire and FeedDemon.
For many office workers, a good part of the day is spent in Outlook, so Inbox 3.0 will be a nice find for them, especially because the program, like the desktop readers, is free.
Update: I just heard from Nick Bradbury who mentions that FeedDemon 2.6.1 beta does support APML import, but it's still experimental. To use it, you follow the steps like you're going to import OPML, but then select your APML file instead. He says that once he is comfortable with how APML import works, it will be exposed in a much more user-friendly way.
Comments
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Are people still reading RSS feeds in Outlook? I don't think NewsGator is relevant at all any more...seems like everything is widgetized with rich content, and a text-only newsreader or email integration tool like NewsGator are only used these days by the most hardcore of news junkies. This NewsGator stuff is boring for RWW readers!
Posted by: Alan | April 17, 2008 12:12 PM
NewsGator (now Inbox) was my first foray into a desktop reader. I quickly maxed it out (if you follow the number of feeds Marshall and I do it will kill Outlook), but FeedDemon rocks. I should take advantage of the APML-based features more. Maybe I'll find more cool stuff in less time.
Posted by: Tris Hussey | April 17, 2008 2:54 PM
Online feed readers are better. They work from any computer.
Posted by: Kishor | April 17, 2008 5:42 PM
I love NewsGator Online, but I couldn't imagine having my feeds pulled in alongside my inbox in Thunderbird. I like specific zones for specific tasks (email, news etc) and I seriously doubt I'd get through my RSS as efficiently if new email notifications were popping up alongside the latest smash hit RWW posts. Do any RWW readers actually prefer having their email and RSS in one place?
Posted by: Neil | April 18, 2008 6:35 AM
Wow - where to start??
How can someone say that product like NewsGator can be supplanted by a f#*@ing widget?? What "rich media" (love that term...not) can a widget deliver that a client like NG can't? Your opinion stated as fact doesn't make it so.
It's also a little broad to say "online is always better", but if it's online tools you like then why not use NewsGator....they do have an online version of the tool that links, among other things - FeedDemon (standalone client), NewsGator (online), Inbox (Outlook plugin), NewsGator Mobile (I use it with my BB) - and it synchs across the entire. Again, opinion stated as fact...doesn't work so well.
I'm wavering on whether or not I'm going to install Inbox 3.0 as I, like one of the previous commenters, like to seperate my information feeds - but I don't really know what I'm missing by doing this so I'm not sure if it's the right way to go...heck...I have FeedDemon open all day long anyway!
I wonder how installing Inbox will affect Outlook performance??
I've been a fan of NG since I was paying for it and now love it twice as much with it being free ;-)
Posted by: Rob | April 18, 2008 8:27 AM