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News aggregators)
A news aggregator is a software application or remotely hosted service that collects content from disparate news sources, allowing the user a single place of consumption and alerting the user of content updates. Te aggregator periodically collects a set of news feeds, in one of several XML-based formats (RSS or Atom).
News aggregators free the user from having to browse to their favorite website checking for updates, greatly improving productivity. Users are able to create a unique information space that caters to their specific needs and desires. Essentially, news aggregator users are becoming their own media editors.
There are primarily three types:
- Desktop news aggregators
- Online news aggregators
- Server side aggregators
Note also that the web browsers Mozilla Firefox, OmniWeb, and Opera and
the e-mail client Mozilla Thunderbird now support RSS and Atom.
The term news aggregator is often mistaken with newsreader.
Desktop news aggregators
These are software applications that run on your computers.
Online news aggregators
Online news aggregators are similar in functionality to desktop news aggregators, but are accessed online through a web browser. Feeds are checked for updates automatically by the service provider. Unlike desktop news aggregators, online news aggregators can be accessed from anywhere.
Server side aggregators
These function much as online news aggregators, but are administered by the user. They can thus be viewed as a hybrid of desktop and online news aggregators. To use one of these, you need to have your own http server (preferably Apache) with PHP and have MySQL installed on either your own computer or on a server. Exceptions are noted in parentheses. Please note: If you plan to run your aggregator on a hosted server, please check with your provider about firewall security setup. They may need to explicitly "allow" your rss feeds.
See also
External links