NewsGator has added a new feature to its rss arsenal. Thanks to its partnership with AideRSS it now has Thematic Post Rank in its services [Source]. But what exactly does this mean?

This means that NewsGator can now offer a more focused and personalized (Customizavle) RSS reading. In other words it can enhance the punters RSS reading experience. Give it more value.

This seems to be the other twin of how to promote RSS. (i) Others offer a service to simplify RSS feeds and (ii) others offer a service to enhance RSS feeds.

This is not a bad development at all and this because it aims to satisfy two potential camps of information users: (i)Those who want to keep it simple and (ii) those who want to have enhanced value service.

NewsGator has released a free application for the IPhone and IPod. The application is based on the popular and critically-acclaimed Mac RSS feed reader NetNewsWire. And iPhone NetNewsWire can sync with several suite of RSS readers from NewsGator - including NewsGator Online, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire for Macintosh, and Inbox.

According to the press release, the iPhone’s RSS Reader is easy to use.

The application is extremely easy-to-use and features a simple, clear user interface that complements the iPhone and iPod touch experience. NetNewsWire for iPhone makes it easy for users to cycle through all their news by using the “Next Unread” button, which goes from story to story with a quick tap of a single button. Users can also save items to read or blog about later via clipping, and saved items also sync with the desktop and browser-based RSS readers.[Source]

Apparently the application was developed to be in sync with the iPhone’s intuitive sense of use experience. NetNewsWire Creator and Developer Brent Simmons implied as much and said that the “popularity of the iPhone and iPod touch makes it the perfect platform to create an outstanding mobile application that can become a part of people’s everyday experience. [Source]”

NetNewsWire for iPhone is free and available at Apple’s App Store (on iPhone and iPod touch) and here.

A few days before NewsGator inked a partnership with the Japanese company DAC. It, NewsGator released its latest version of its widget platform, Editor’s Desk 2.1 [Source].

Features improved include:

1. A redesigned user interface.
2. It has New templates.
3. A more simpler and streamlined procedures for creating widgets.

NewsGators widget allows businesses - in particular brand and media companies - to build, deploy, and track widgets.

NewsGators widgets platform enable business and on-line publishers to engage its readers by using social media and newsGators Web 2.0 syndication productst:

1. RSS Readers
2. Widget Framework
3. Community Publisher
4. Widget Ads

Even without the widget ads and speaking as a blogger. These widgets does seem to offer the tools one needs to better the reading experience of ones visitors to the blog.

More information about NewsGator Widgets can be seen here.

Newsgator just inked a deal with Digital Advertising Consortium (DAC) that gives exclusive rights to DAC to NewsGator Widget Services to Japanese media companies and brands. This will allow DAC to market NewsGator Widgets for content syndication. [Source.]

What does NewsGator Widget Services do?

And why is there interest in it?

NewsGator Widget Services creates widgets that send content to the following:

1. Web sites

2. Blogs

3. Social networks

4. Start pages

And according to NewsGator it can create additional advertising revenue and reach new audiences from using widgets. From the looks of it one thing is sure such widgets make things easy and entertaining for the punter , us , to subscribe.

Well this is another way to get over the RSS apprehension while using it (RSS) to power syndication of posts.

Remember Attention Profiling Mark-up Language or APML in the previous post? I this it? , NewsGator Technologies, Inc. said that it included the filtering capabilities of Uprizer Labs’ SenseArray collaborative filtering into its RSS readers [Source]

According to Uprizer Labs CEO Ian Clarke, SenseArray recommends stories or articles or posts based on a user’s everyday interaction with their NewsGator Reader. Clarke said that based on early tests the system has been very accurate in predicting taste and interests.

Newsgator VP for products Brian Kellner states that “Collaborative filtering” is used already being used to help users find products on Net Flix and Amazon. Kellner adds.“NewsGator is using our huge stream of relevance actions in a truly innovative way with the SenseArray collaborative filter to provide the same kind of recommendation capabilities with RSS articles.”[Source]

So it is APML. It sures smells and sounds like it.

And this is a good thing because it makes RSS user-friendly. It seems to me, at least, that it, SenseArray and APML,far outweighs any concern … for now.

Attention Profiling Mark-up Language or APML is an XML-based format used for capturing the likes and dislikes of person. It is said to be a more accurate way of sharing one’s attention profile. And NewsGator is now making it easier to share one’s APML to other applications [Source]. This makes things less cumbersome.

The purpose of APML is to have a compressed compilation of all forms of Attention Data and keep into a portable file format, in other words it is a file of all your rated interests, so far. Compare to the Outline Processor Markup Language or OPML ,which is an xml format of outlines and what is used in exporting list of feeds between rss readers and aggregators.

Online RSS Reader Bloglines also support the APML format.

It seems that APML is a very effective way of easily getting information. Although it seems to be prone to abuse - we are dealing with personal information and preference, a set of very useful information. And that is why movements like DataPortability makes sure that personal data is exchanged between trusted applications and vendors. Personal data includes but is not limited to identity, photos, and videos.

NewsGator is also part of the APML Work Group, which is part of Dataportability.

CNet has reviewed some of the most populair RSS readers: Bloglines, Rojo, Google Reader, FeedDemon and Newsgator Inbox 2.6 for Outlook. Like Steve writes, the most useful part of the review is a matrix that compares each on their blogging, mobile and language capabilities. Overall winner is Newsgator’s FeedDemon, Bloglines ends second.

Alldvrnews.com writes about the coming demand for DVRs with RSS capabilities, which allows DVR users to subscribe to their favorite podcasts and vodcasts. At the same time I found this article on AdAge about Moqvo, which should be the new TiVo of the internet. Moqvo’s co-founder, Mr. Detwiler, calls the site a “social media center” and speaks about the competitors like MyYahoo, NewsGator and Google Reader who all use a text-based user experience.

Unlike his competitors’ text summaries and links, Moqvo offers “channels” with content such as New York Times podcasts and Comedy Central video clips. Users subscribe to an RSS feed by dragging and dropping a “channel” into a user’s personalized page.

“RSS may stand for Real Simple Syndication, but it’s not simple,” Mr. Detwiler said. “Our whole premise as more video and audio goes to the web is to ask, ‘How can we re-create the TV experience?’ Ours is an RSS feeder for the masses.”

Be sure to also check the Democracy player, with that you can subscribe to any video RSS feed (video podcasts).

TechCrunch (uhh, i mean Frank Gruber) examined nine web-based feed readers (Attensa Online, Bloglines, FeedLounge, Google Reader, Gritwire, News Alloy, NewsGator Online, Pluck Web Edition, Rojo).

Not much of a shock here, Google Reader and FeedLounge are the fastest in performace. Bloglines and Rojo are the best choice for a feature rich application. Except none seem to approach the speed and agility of the desktop based readers like NetNewsWire and FeedDemon (surprise;).

Nice chart though:

NewsGator has been very busy! Lately they’ve been working with Vista and checking out the mobile market. Now they are releasing NewsGator Inbox 2.6 (formerly NewsGator Outlook Edition) and FeedDemon 2.0, finally;) The release marks the first major update of the product since NewsGator’s acquisition of FeedDemon developer Bradbury Software in May of 2005. The new products have an enhanced synchronization with the NewsGator Online platform. This online platform holds all your RSS subscriptions so you can use it in your office, at home or on the go!