This is a great find from what I want to do with my websites. Having RSS feeds from other related sites allows those who visit to get as much relevant data or information as possible. Over the last few weeks I have been using Blog Navigator and it has impressed me with its ability to read RSS feeds.
Stardock Blog Navigator: This view of Blog Navigator shows 3 views, all the RSS feeds (far left),
the selected RSS Feed post listings for example the RSS feed selected
is Stardock on the Net in the Feed window area (top-right), and the article viewer (bottom-right).
It also happens that the 'Stardock on the Net' feed hi-lited is also a web search that looks for
specific items on the net and shows it in the feed listings
While, for me, the UI (user interface) is harder to figure out in this iteration of the beta software, the program is still pretty cool. Its one big feature that I like is saving the linked stories to your hard drive. Its also has tabbed browsing to read multiple stories in one window. If I want to read it later I can, but it is not in a whole other window. All I have to do is switch over.
Here you see all the tabs you can have within Blog Navigator
Blog Navigator is
best mostly when used in conjunction with Joe User. There are other RSS news readers that do more, but for now especially since I have a few JoeUser blogs to manage, it makes things easier to use, move blog postings and so on.
So Blog Navigator become very useful because now it intergrates the ability to blog (for the pro version) and the ability to reed other blogs RSS feed and feeds from around the net (free version). With the free version you can quickly organize your RSS feeds, have a web search that looks for specific items on line, and save blogs or posts on your hard drive. You might be able to do this with other RSS feeders, but this is Blog Navigators saving grace... Blog Navigator Pro. Now with Pro, you can do a lot more of which truely included being to blog on your computer and posting it from the program
Now here comes Pluck into the picture. It works within the Internet Explorer browser to get news feeds from sites you select. It would seem to have a great handle on where to go to get these feeds, easily loads them and gives you alerts for new posts. It allows you to share with others (VERY IMPORTANT: Read the article on
Save This here at JTB), has very nice search and filter tools, the layout is very understandable and has this feature with eBay to give you RSS feeds for selected categories. You can ad comments to saved links items, get them anywhere that a computer con go on-line, and did
I mention RSS and Link Sharing?
Here you see Pluck working within Internet Explorer with the My Pluck web folder open
The latest version of Pluck has a integrated tool bar, an ability to save web links on-line, save your whole favorites folder on-line and share them with others if you wish (as I mentioned earlier). It has the usual search the Internet tools, but where it gets smart is that you can filter your RSS feeds. Also you can "Perch" searches for items your looking for and Pluck looks for this item every so many times.
Pluck working within Internet Explorer with the RSS Feed Reader web folder open.
Much like Blog Navigator, you have a choice of views that you can use
Pluck's intergrated toolbar for searching and other functions
You can add the 'Pluck It' button by dragging the link to the toolbar from the Web Sign In page
otherwise known as the Pluck Web Access page (PWA)
NOW this blog post was mostly based on the free version of both softwares. Blog Navigator has hidden treasures in the
full version / subscription service such that you get the latest build of Blog Navigator for a year (after that you have to renew in order to get any more newer versions). Blog Navigator Pro also allows you to create similar items to what Pluck offers such as web searching new items (in
Blog Navigator it is called 'Web Search' while in
Pluck it is called 'Perches'). Using both at the same time, along with a Joe User account, gives you great power over collecting, writing your blogs and over all keeping of thoughts and personal ideas at arms reach.
That in allot of ways, particularly if you have a Stardock account or
Joe User account, makes Blog Navigator very useful as far as communications and data reception. The feature that Pluck should have but doesn't is the ability to save the web page on your hard drive for later reference. Nevertheless using both Pluck and Blog Navigator will be a triumph to say the least.
Drawbacks are that you can't use Pluck inside of Blog Navigator, nor can you use the right click from the browser area of Blog Navigator where it shows the webpages. This means copying and pasting or clicking open new browser for viewing the blog. Reguardless, using both will help anyone to store their memories.
For more about using
Pluck, see this blog post or check out
this webpage for more details on what Pluck is and how to use it. If you need to know more about Blog Navigator and how to use it click the following links:
The Stardock Blog Navigator feature tour - Part I
The Stardock Blog Navigator feature tour - Part II
The Stardock Blog Navigator feature tour - Part III
The Stardock Blog Navigator feature tour - Part IV
You can also read more on
Adam's gentle guides to skins and icons home site as well.