Page2RSS is a very nice service that creates feeds from any web page, by including the new content and linking to a page that highlights the differences.
A simple example of web page that could be monitored using Page2RSS is google.com: a homepage that rarely changes only to celebrate important events or to announce new Google features. You could subscribe to the automatically-generated feed by visiting:
http://page2rss.com/page?url=www.google.com/. This also works for international sites like
Google Japan,
Google Italy etc. Unfortunately, you'll also receive an update when Google puts the classic logo back.
Of course, the service is useful for any web page that doesn't offer feeds, but it's better suited for web pages that don't change very frequently since Page2RSS checks to see if there's new content every 4 hours. You could use it to generate feeds for changelogs, privacy policies, news sites,
Google Labs or to find new features in Google's services, like Hindi support added to
Google Translate on April 29. Can you find other interesting web pages that could be monitored using Page2RSS?
Great service. I've been looking for something like this. It's so simple to use as well. Just used it to subscribe to this page which annoyingly doesn't have a feed http://business.smh.com.au/opinion/ross-gittins-smh
Mark said on May 5, 2008 2:41 AM PDT:
Fantastic! My university uses
Blackboard software and it can be tedious to check each unit every few days to see if anything has come up in the News/Notices section.
It is very Nice software and use easily.It an learn quickly. If you have any problem for use this software we can get all types of computer help.... use the link...
www.iyogi.net
Mark said on May 5, 2008 3:10 AM PDT:
Update: Unfortunately I cannot use this with the Blackboard software as it requires authentication prior to viewing the content.
i've found out abut this service a few weeks ago...
been using it to track a few sites...
kite a nice service...
there are a few of them already on google reader, too.
I wonder how private is it to have some "PRIVATE" feeds on GR. are they all searchable by others?
Feeds are searchable in Google Reader only if they are linked from web pages. It's easy to notice that most of the results from Google Reader come from a Google web search.
p4ulote said on May 5, 2008 3:38 AM PDT:
imma give it a try, this blog is the shit btw!
bye :)
Nikolay said on May 5, 2008 4:09 AM PDT:
Aha! I've just created a similar service: http://feedex.net/
My service automagically expands topic-only feeds to full-text version.
Hunnter said on May 5, 2008 6:29 AM PDT:
That is rather cool.
I like how simple it is as well.
I just wonder how.. ah yeh, i see, if you put a site that changes frequently, it does show everything.
That could cause some problems with even bigger sites.
It would be nice to have an interface to hide changes behind an expand-iframe-fill method, but that causes some problems as well.
I've actually been coding a similar thing using Autohotkey scripts.
Got a simple downloading script working, just need to write the ones that open files and determine differences, then create a new addition into its web history.
@Tom:
Feed43 is too complicated to use: you need to define patterns, rules etc. FeedYes is very slow and tries to be smart by detecting headlines.
Page2RSS has another purpose: monitoring changes, not detecting and separating items from a page.
Can you find other interesting web pages that could be monitored using Page2RSS?How about
this one in case the proper Google Talk client ever gets an upgrade?
Ralf said on May 6, 2008 1:38 AM PDT:
Excellent tip, thank you!
I used for pages like this so far a Windows fat client application called WebSiteWatcher to monitor for example Apples refurbished shop and price changes on Amazon wish lists (URLs in the article linked below). Maybe its time to change.
To Marks comment about having to login into Blackboard: Even if the feature would be there, maybe you would hesitate to store your user/password on the system of Page2RSS (at least I would)?
WebSiteWatcher can address that situation too, but it lacks definitely the simplicity of Page2RSS (and it is not free!).
More details about my usage of WebsiteWatcher here:
http://www.line-of-reasoning.com/issues/examples-of-news-that-you-would-miss-using-only-rss-and-or-google-reader/
said on May 14, 2008 8:33 PM PDT:
Nice! I generally use Feedity - http://feedity.com - for creating custom RSS feeds from webpages. It doesn't list feed item descriptions or images, but its so damn simple to use and very fast. Chao :)
said on May 21, 2008 5:22 AM PDT:
http://www.yoktu.com/feedmaker easy-use and fast.
@Mike:
That's a terrible service, it just creates a feed item from each link.
Kalina said on April 30, 2009 10:21 PM PDT:
Earth day image of google is fantastic. 2RSS Idea i don't feel its good.
Google Reader only if they are linked from web pages. It's easy to notice that most of the results from Google Reader come from a Google web search.
That could cause some problems with even bigger sites.
It would be nice to have an interface to hide changes behind an expand-iframe-fill method, but that causes some problems as well.
Feed43 is too complicated to use: you need to define patterns, rules etc. FeedYes is very slow and tries to be smart by detecting headlines.
Acai said on May 17, 2009 10:36 PM PDT:
I've just created a similar service: http://feedex.net/
My service automagically expands topic-only feeds to full-text version.
i dont feel 2rss is good idea as it's very complex for me to uderstand.
If you have any problem for use this software we can get all types of computer help.... use the link...
Nice! I generally use Feedity - http://feedity.com - for creating custom RSS feeds from webpages. It doesn't list feed item descriptions or images, but its so damn simple to use and very fast.
