Ok, so you have an RSS reader, now what? How do you find the information that you’re looking for and get it into a feed? The easiest way is to look for the icon on your favorite websites. These represent pre-existing RSS Feeds. When you click on the icon a new page appears, copy that URL into the "Add Channel" feature in your RSS Reader or Aggregator. You should now see the RSS Feed and items in your RSS Reader.

Probably the coolest way to generate a personalized RSS Feed is to go to Google News and type in a search for what you are interested in. Then click on the RSS hyperlink on the left. This will generate the URL for your custom feed. I personally have feeds set-up to monitor Latigent, our key customers, and our competitors. Anytime one them appears in the news, I get the information delivered via my personal RSS Feed.

A Customized RSS Feed from Google for Call Center Software

While we’re on the Google topic. Google has released the beta version of their own "blog reader" (http://www.google.com/reader)  . I haven’t had much time to play with it, but Google Reader Beta appears to be pretty good. The Ajax interface is pretty and imposes a certain "wow" factor. However, it seems to still be a bit buggy and missing some features of the more established players (such as BlueVue Enterprise RSS Server).

A Screenshot of the Latigent RSS Feed viewed through Google Reader Beta