Tabbloid - RSS Lifesaver
Christopher Bell -- School Library Journal, 1/28/2009
I thought RSS Feeds were the coolest things. I started subscribing to everything that looked interesting and useful. This was great - I got all the information I wanted. But it wasn’t long before I started drowning in information and I had so many emails that I started unsubscribing. As a result, I missed out on a ton of good information.There is an answer. Tabbloid is a web-based application that allows you to put all of the URLs for your RSS feeds, which are Websites and blogs that you subscribe to, into a single environment. It takes the information from these resources and puts it into a newspaper format. What are the benefits?
You can immediately eliminate all of those RSS emails you get. And I find it so much easier to read. In a two column format, there is no advertising or flashing buttons telling you to buy the newest car, only the content you want. Simply set up your feeds, the time of day you would like to receive your Tabbloid edition via email, and pick your time zone. That’s it. You can also get generic subject driven feeds. If you decide you don’t want a certain feed it is a single click to delete that link. No more having to send an email to unsubscribe and contact someone! Tabbloid also creates a PDF document that can be printed for handouts, or emailed.
I bookmarked my Tabbloid site and now I just add all of the Website URLs (RSS Feeds) that I like, and can check it any time. I also scheduled it to deliver my Tabbloid to me on Mondays so I always have my RSS feeds to read throughout the week.
Christopher Bell is the Library Media Specialist and Head of Technology at Castle View High School, Colorado (where he influences students to do the worst thing on earth - think for themselves).
