AOL Wins Patent for IM TV

"A potentially powerful application. Although AOL won't go into details, the patent describes the gist of the new technology: When an AOL user pops up her buddy list, it would show what TV shows her friends are currently watching. Click a link, and her TV would change to that channel. "This enables friends to exchange messages that include links to a particular network or TV show," the patent says. Very intriguing." [Lost Remote]

Virtual Auto Mechanic Library Helps Consumers Avoid Auto Repair RipOffs

"If you've ever been ripped off by an auto repair shop, you'll want to check this out and pass it along to patrons...

'Having been taken to the cleaners to the tune of $2,300 by disreputable auto repair shops, Mike Smith of West Fargo, ND decided to put the power of the Web to work for others who may have had similar experiences.

The new Web-based Virtual Auto Mechanic http://www.vamech.com video library takes consumers inside an auto repair shop to educate them on automotive parts, maintenance and repairs. Consumers learn about specific parts and repair issues for themselves; enabling them to make educated decisions before authorizing any repair work.' Read All About It." [LISNews.com]

"Steve Jobs demoed Safari’s RSS Reader today. Read about it and then check it out in action.

Update: Brent Simmons, developer of NetNewsWire, reacts to Safari RSS." [The RSS Weblog]

Is this big news? Sure, but anyone that reads Scoble knows Microsoft is working towards integrating RSS into Longhorn itself.

However, I agree 100% with Steven that the best RSS aggregator is one that is web-based, not a desktop client. As more and more people shift their information on the go, the last thing they'll need is to begin relying heavily on an aggregator that they'll lose when their desktop crashes. 'Cause we've all had that happen, haven't we?

Mobile Gas Price Alerts

"In partnership with GasPriceWatch.com, Bonus Mobile will be offering up to date gas price information on over 100,000 stations nationwide. Local price information can be sent automatically to any cell phone subscriber in the United States, according to a company press release.

'The mobile phone will change the way gas will be sold in this country' said Brad Procter, Founder of GasPriceWatch.com. Mobile Gas Price Alerts will end the guessing game of knowing the best price for gasoline in your town', according to William Volk, CTO/Business Development of BonusMobile." [textually.org]

Nice! At work, Kate had the brilliant idea to add the GasPriceWatch alerts to our intranet.  :-)

"It may seem obvious to readers of this particular blog that just about anything on the web that changes, whether frequently or infrequently, should have an associated feed. Readers all over rejoice when a major publication decides to hop onboard the syndication freight train. And beyond your typical publications, there are hundreds of innovative services that are just waiting to be remixed with some RSS flavor. 

At Supernova, Scott Rosenberg pointed out that privacy policies are a perfect candidate for RSS feeds. I second that. I also want KEXP playlists to be updated hourly. And I’d like car recall notices, too. And coupons for businesses in my ZIP code. And MetaCritic. And Aquarius Records new releases. And so on, and so on…

Nick Bradbury: CNN.com, The Onion, and PythOnline....

Michael Sippey: 'Until my entire family gets their act together and starts using Flickr for photo sharing, I want an RSS feed from Ofoto of new pics of my nieces, nephews and cousins.  That feed could be sucked up by a screen saver, or scripted to rotate as my desktop background, or have one every N photos auto-shipped to the photo printer.'

Jason Kottke: The New Yorker

So, what do you want to become available via RSS? Leave your requests in a comment. If you really wow me, you might just get a gmail invitation...." [The RSS Weblog]

My greatest wish - my local newspapers. Hopefully, the directory of my local library and I will be talking to them soon to turn on a few light bulbs. Then I want feeds for grant offerings of relevance to my job. Then, of course, I want feeds from my online catalog!!!!!

It's getting too frustrating trying to get Radio to publish what I'm writing, so this will probably be the last post until a new solution is in place. Hopefully nothing too important will come up during that time. Thanks for your patience.

Update: Who was I kidding that I could stop posting on a Monday?... Just for the record, since there are questions in the comments, Radio has suddenly stopped upstreaming files to my server. Nothing has changed on my desktop, and nothing has changed on the server to my knowledge. After I'm through posting for the night, I restart Radio multiple times trying to get the files to upstream, and I'm lucky if the files go one time out of ten. There are no error messages in Radio's application window, and I don't see the files upstream in the status message, even when I use the Windows app to manually publish my home page. The events log occasionally shows that my home page has been upstreamed, but the time on it is 0.000. When I check my site via regular FTP, everything is fine and lightning fast.

I haven't posted questions to the discussion forum because I'm tired of fighting Radio. The aggregator is acting up, too, redisplaying posts from Ernie the Attorney, JD's Media Musings, and Best Week Ever every hour, to the point where I had to unsubscribe from them. I seem to have major problems every 4-6 months, and I think it's time to move to a server-based solution.

I'm in the process of testing other options, but I guess I'll keep trying to post in Radio until I have a clear winner as a replacement. If the site goes silent for a while, though, you'll know that I'm posting, but you just can't see what I'm writing. Sigh.

Debra Overbey recently emailed me to ask for my thoughts about RSS and advertising, specifically, when is it too much? She's not against ads in RSS feeds, emphatically supporting 1-2 ads per day, but she was quickly becoming annoyed with the frequency of AbeBooks ads in Moreover feeds. I suggested she provide feedback as a user, which to her credit, she did.  Here's where she's currently at. (All emphasis below is mine, in partial disbelief.)

"To abebooks.com:

I was delighted to find Abebooks.com several months ago and have located several items for personal purchase. Professionally, as a Librarian, I have directed many people to this site.

I do, however, have a cavil that may end up affecting whether I continue to use Abebooks.com personally and it will, certainly, be an added negative codacil to any recommendation that I pass on to others.

It's in regard to advertising on various RSS feeds.  I have quit two feeds because of a dominance of Abebooks.com advertising.  I do not mind seeing an ad - even one or two ads.  But I find multiple daily ads from the same source to be intrusive and obnoxious.

I hope you will re-consider your policy...."

Abebooks did respond, but the representative thought it was a technical issue, so Debra tried again:

"Thank you for the quick response!  This is not a specific technical problem but a policy and advertising issue that I'm asking Abebooks to reconsider in the interest of generating better customer relations.  I am asking Abebooks.com to change their policy about how they advertise via RSS....

I would like to reiterate that I have NO PROBLEM, whatsoever, with one or two daily ads.  I do, however, mind the daily barrage a lot.  Today, for instance, the Moreover feed mentioned below (http://p.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?c=Consumer%3A%20book%20reviews&;o=rss ) had 59 headline items listed.  Of those,  exactly 30 were ads for Abebooks.com.

I hope your Customer Relations and Technical departments will take this into consideration.   Your prompt response to my submission indicates that customer relations are important to you and  I appreciate the attention."

This time, an Abebooks customer service responded appropriately and noted that their marketing department was investigating the issue. Debra's response:

"Once again, your responsiveness is impressive in terms of customer relations.  As of three or four days ago, the multiple Abebooks.com ads stopped showing up in the Moreover:  Consumer Book Reviews feed.  I don't know if this was a result of your internal investigations or the query that I sent to the Moreover tech department.  Regardless, I am delighted with the result - I appreciate the time and annoyance this saves me and I really appreciate that the time I spent pursuing the matter appears to have made a difference.  Thank you very much for your efforts and thanks, again,  to Abebooks.com for acting and responding.  You can be sure that I will share this experience with others."

At the same time, Debra also sent feedback to Moreover.com:

"I subscribe to several Moreover feeds and have found the content to be informative, helpful, and worthwhile.  I am, however, seeing an intrusion of ads that are annoying, bothersome, and I will stop subscribing soon if the situation does not change.  I have unsubscribed from other feeds when the advertising becomes intrusive.  I understand that advertising is a fact of life and necessary;  I am fine with that - I do object, however, when it dominates the content.  A handful of ads is acceptable; dominance is not - ESPECIALLY when they are all from the same company...."

Unfortunately, the Moreover folks never responded to Debra's attempt to contact them, so six days later, she sent a follow-up message.

"On Sunday, June 20, I sent a message regarding advertising in your feeds.  The text of the message follows these current comments - I hope you will refer to it first so that these comments have some context.

Happily, the Abebooks.com ads have completely disappeared from your Book Review feed as of four days ago.  I do not know if this is a result of how Moreover is scanning for feeds or a result of a similar query that I sent directly to Abebooks.com.  Regardless, I am delighted that the time I spent pursuing my cavil appears to have obtained the desired result and I'm appreciative that some company's Customer Service was excellent enough to be that responsive.

Given that the World Cup tickets have not disappeared from your Soccer feed and given that a new company has shown up with multiple advertising on the Book Review feed, I suspect the great Customer Relations were from Abebooks rather than Moreover.  

I hope you take note that, as of a few days ago,  new multiple ads for a company have appeared in the Moreover Book Review feed - from SimplyAudioBooks (www.simplyaudiobooks.com).  Of  78 headlines in today's session,    44 were ads for SimplyAudioBooks. While I will send a copy of this to SimplyAudioBooks for their consideration, I would like to strongly suggest that your company change it's policy regarding advertising and/or change the technology for scanning for headlines.

I would like to also strongly reiterate that I do not object to advertising per se.  I would welcome one or two ads daily from many different companies; it is obtrusive and obnoxious, however, that one company can dominate a feed like this.

I hope you will take this into consideration.  It would be refreshing as well to receive some kind of personal response from a representative.  In the meantime, my intention is to give the situation about another week's consideration before I quit all Moreover feeds altogether."

I wanted to publicly commend Debra for taking time out of her already busy schedule to provide important feedback to both companies, including a follow-up to Moreover. That's above and beyond, and Moreover really needs to pay attention to someone who is willing to devote this much energy to alerting them to a problem with their feeds. Imagine how many other people simply unsubscribe and never bother to tell them why. Shame on Moreover for ignoring Debra.

At the same time, major kudos to Abebooks for taking the opposite tack and responding to Debra's messages and concerns! That's customer service!

And consider this a warning to companies thinking of inserting ads into their feeds. Most people won't take the time to provide the kind of feedback Debra did, so value it when they do. And keep the number of ads down or else we'll unsubscribe. That is, after all, the beauty of RSS.