NewsGator Online – My Clippings

Since the NewsGator team has seen fit to fill their tools with so many options I will continue where we left of during the last post, with the review of NewsGator Online.

One feature that NewsGator has incorporate that I found useful was the My Clippings folder set within the folder tree. When using RSS Readers I sometimes find myself feeling overwhelmed because online news agencies put out so many feeds everyday. In NewsGator Online the top level category folders, such as “International” in my folder tree, have a cumulative count of how many unread items are in each category, with that number ultimately rolling up to the My Feeds unread count. Some days I may only have a few minutes to check my NewsGator account, which means the numbers of posts can be staggering. I found that by utilizing the My Clippings I can eliminate this feeling by scanning through the feeds like headlines in a newspaper and when I run across one that sounds like something I want to read, then I “Add it to My Clippings”.

So how does it work? Basically you can use the top level My Clippings folder or if you like a little more organization like I do, then you simply create new folders in your My Clippings Folder the same way that you setup your My Feeds folders. Then when you are going through the headlines in your feeds folders and you find one that you like you simply click on the 3.5”floppy disc icon with the words “Add to clippings”. This will create a pop-up that will have a listing of all of your My Clippings folders. Simply select the folder that you want the selected article to drop into. It will not move all of the articles from the feed to the folder but rather just the article you selected from that feed to the My Clippings folder you selected. It also leaves a copy in the original folder except now the save icon and Add to clippings will be gone from that feed article. The others that you have not saved or added to clippings will still have the icon and Add to clippings.

Once you have saved a feed article to your My Clippings folders you can delete them when you are done with them or move them to a different folder. You can Tag them (which I have not explored yet, more to come!) and you can even email the post to a friend. In essence this tool provides a simple way to help you manage your feeds and reduce your news intake from a fire hose down to say a garden hose volume. It allows you to either go back right away to read the articles or posts that you have selected or leave them and come back when it is convenient for you. I find this nice because it means that I do not have to read everything right when I check my account, especially when I might only have a few minutes to review my feeds. This is also nice because I can sort out the feeds that I want to share with friends and the feeds that I want to save for later.

There is one thing that the jury is still out on for me and that the number of unread items is still tallied at the sub-folder and rolled up through the My Clippings folder tree to the top level folder. I am not sure if I like this or if it makes me uneasy. It could just be that having the number of unread there is encouraging my OCD to take over. That being said, overall I found this feature helpful because it saved me time and allowed me to read on my own terms. NewsGator Online does a superb job of placing the info in front of you and this tool helps you sort through it all to find what interest you.

You may have been worried that this would be the last posting about NewsGator Online but never fear, they have packed still more tools into this service so the next post will explore another tool within the NewsGator Online package.