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CyberNotes: How to Create a Feed for Sites Without Syndication

CyberNotes
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FeedityI have come to rely on my RSS subscriptions more than I would like to admit. In fact, the very first thing that I do in the morning when I turn on my computer is open up my Feed Reader to go through all of my subscriptions. It’s become a way of life.  Because of that, there’s nothing more frustrating than coming across a site that I’d like to keep tabs on, that doesn’t have any syndication like RSS available.

Searching for a solution to this problem never really occurred to me until recently when I stumbled upon Feedity. It turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

Feedity is a web feed generator for sites that don’t have syndication available.  Thousands of sites use a feed to get their content to readers, and despite this, some sites still don’t offer it.

It’s very simple, yet powerful and useful.  All you have to do is go to Feedity.com with the URL of the site without the syndication, enter in the URL, and Feedity creates an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. And to boot, no registration is required which means this is definitely a no hassle solution.

Feedity works by using content analysis to pick up on hyperlinks, and then generates a feed based upon that. Sometimes, what it generates may not be exactly what you’re wanting. If you’re not satisfied with the results, they offer option to refine them.

Feedity1

The first time I used Feedity was to create an RSS feed for YouTube’s “Most viewed videos for the day.”  I entered in the URL, and right off the bat it worked without a glitch, and I was able to subscribe to the feed. I tried several different sites, and with each one, there was no need to refine the results because it worked exactly how I wanted it to the first time.

Another thing that I like is that they give you examples of how you could use Feedity, like for IMDB Movie Recommendations, TiVo shows search, or even an eBay search.

Feedity is one of those things that you’ll want to stash away in your bookmarks, because eventually you’ll probably come across a site that doesn’t offer syndication. They consider this “experimental” and in Beta, so you may come across a problem here or there. Luckily, I didn’t have any problems, so no complaints here.

I’m sure there are others besides Feedity that offer the same kind of service. If you know of one, definitely let us know in the comments below so that everybody can benefit from it!

 

Nintendo’s Wii is King of the Hill for February Sales Gallery 2.2 Released – Host your own Image Gallery March 17th, 2007 Written by Ashley
  1. MaxAll-StarMarch 17, 2007 at 8:45 am

    You forgot to post the Feedity url. :P

    [feedity.com]

    Reply
  2. Kim2March 17, 2007 at 10:24 am

    thanks! feedity is teh coolest thing I have come across for my thesis research :) kudos!!!

    Reply
  3. funTomasMarch 17, 2007 at 10:28 am

    How about [dapper.net] and its [dapper.net] – Firefox extension?

    Reply
  4. AshleyAuthorMarch 17, 2007 at 1:09 pm

    Thanks Max.. I complete forgot URL’s all together! Oops!

    Reply
  5. Chad-)March 17, 2007 at 5:10 pm

    [feed43.com] gives you far greater control on the feed than the “in it goes, out it comes” types.

    Reply
  6. karveiraMarch 18, 2007 at 8:58 am

    Hi,

    I had already pointed out feedity.com on your blog on a comment about [tech.cybernetnews.com] you can also find a similar service on these websites:
    [feed43.com]
    [feedyes.com]
    [page2rss.com]
    [ponyfish.com]

    I know feedity.com for more than a year, when it was the first service on the web (that i kew of) offering this kind of service (it was called back then Feedtier), and it works rather well. Sadly, sometimes the feeds stop updating, I am now using ponyfish.com.

    Reply
  7. RyanAuthorMarch 18, 2007 at 12:31 pm
    funTomas wrote:
    How about [dapper.net] and its [dapper.net] – Firefox extension?

    I haven’t tried that before but it does look pretty nice. I’m assuming that the feeds it makes are managed on their server, because I would hate to create a lot of feeds using the service just to bog down my Firefox more than it has to.

    Chad-) wrote:
    [feed43.com] gives you far greater control on the feed than the “in it goes, out it comes” types.

    Now that is a powerful service. I’m not sure if everyone would understand it, but it is surely nice. The only downside to the free version is that it checks for updates every 6 hours…but I’ve been able to setup feeds for some pretty cool things using it.

    karveira wrote:

    Hi,

    I had already pointed out feedity.com on your blog on a comment about [tech.cybernetnews.com] you can also find a similar service on these websites:

    [feed43.com]

    [feedyes.com]

    [page2rss.com]

    [ponyfish.com]

    I know feedity.com for more than a year, when it was the first service on the web (that i kew of) offering this kind of service (it was called back then Feedtier), and it works rather well. Sadly, sometimes the feeds stop updating, I am now using ponyfish.com.

    I’m actually surprised that I missed that article all together. I normally trie to get around and comment on everything but that one must have passed me by somehow. Thanks for recommending all of the services though! I put them all in my bookmarks…because if one doesn’t work hopefully another will.

    Reply
  8. Chad-)March 19, 2007 at 7:27 am
    Ryan wrote:
    Now that is a powerful service.

    It sure is. Take a look at this for example:
    [chad1.wordpress.com]

    Reply
  9. netster007xAll-StarOctober 28, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Hey Tomas, thanks for the tip about Dapper! I tried feedity, but didn’t give me all of the updates I wanted. Took a shot w/ Dapper, went thru the intuitive content selection procedure, and presto got the perfect feed. Thanks!

    Reply