How to Filter RSS Feeds to Show Only Interesting Articles
The popularity of RSS readers like Google Reader and NewsGator is ultimately based on the ease with which RSS makes reading a large number of frequently updated websites possible. The trouble with RSS is that some providers update so frequently that it is difficult to keep up with interesting content. For those frequently updated RSS feeds, it is essential that some filters are used to keep the feed from overwhelming you with updates.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
PostRank
-
1
Sign up for a free PostRank account at postrank.com.
-
2
Click the "Subscriptions" tab.
-
-
3
Click "Import."
-
4
Select "Direct Input" from the drop-down menu.
-
5
Enter the URLs, one per line, of those feeds you wish to filter to show only interesting posts.
-
6
Click "Import."
-
7
Set the PostRank filtering level to your desired level. "Good" filters the feed a small amount, "Better" filters more than "Good," and "Best" shows only those posts which have generated a lot of discussion.
-
8
Click "Export."
-
9
Select the filtered feeds you wish to export to OPML and then press the "Export" button.
-
10
Import the OPML file into your preferred feed reader.
Yahoo Pipes
-
11
Sign up for a free Yahoo account to sign in to Yahoo Pipes.
-
12
Click "Create a Pipe."
-
13
Drag the "Fetch Feed" module into the editing area.
-
14
Enter the URL of the feed you wish to filter by keyword or author.
-
15
Drag the "Filter" module found under the "Operators" menu into the editing area.
-
16
Connect the "Fetch Feed" and "Filter" modules by clicking the node under "Fetch Feed" and dragging the line to the top node on "Filter."
-
17
Change the "Filter" feed from "Block" to "Permit."
-
18
If you would like to filter on keyword, select "item.title" under rules and enter the keyword you would like to permit in the text field.
-
19
If you would like to filter an author, select "item.author" or "item.creator" under rules and enter the author you would like to permit in the text field.
-
20
Add additional filters as needed.
-
21
Connect the "Filter" and "Pipe Output" modules by clicking the node under "Filter" and dragging the line to the node on "Pipe Output."
-
22
Click "Save" and name your pipe.
-
23
Click "Back to my pipes."
-
24
Select the pipe you created to find the modified RSS feed to subscribe to in your preferred feed reader.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you use Google Reader, you can choose to sort folders by "magic" to show the most interesting articles as determined by your reading habits at the top. This sorting would be in place of date-based sorting.
If you would like to simply block certain content, you would follow the Yahoo Pipes instructions using the "Filter" modules to "Block" instead of "Permit."
