Viigo Bulletins

One of the latest toys we’re showing off in Viigo is our “Add Channel” tool; something we affectionately call the “Discovery component” and/or “Channel Library” internally. Rebranding Newsclip to Viigo was not just a name change; we have very good reasons for taking this path, and the discovery component provides both a) a lot of power for users to find compelling content and services and b) gives some pretty good hints to where we’re heading with Viigo in the longer term.

The “Add Channel” tool is far more powerful than the old “Add Feed From List” tool that exists in Newsclip. For techies you’ll be pleased to know that the new control is a full and complete OPML browser. You can enter the internet address of any OPML file you want, and if it contains links to other OPML files, you can follow them. Our own home page for “Add Channel” is an OPML file with links that we’ll be constantly updating and improving over time.

If you don’t know what OPML is, don’t worry; it’s not really important. What IS important is that the new technology provides a lot of power to you, and a lot of flexibility to us to manage, maintain and upgrade the content discovery resources over time. Try navigating around inside the “Add Channel” tool and you’ll be able to see it first-hand.

Most important, however, is the fact that the “Add Channel” tool is not only convenient lists of popular RSS feeds from all over the Internet… it also contains powerful tools for doing searches (for anything you want), tracking packages, and finding local content.

Here’s a quick guided tour of some of the more powerful (and cool!) features:

• Add your own channel/Add OPML - Enter any OPML URL, which populates the screen with all of the feeds and/or links from that OPML file, allowing you to browse and subscribe. This is really powerful if you use a web-based RSS aggregator that publishes your OPML subscription list.
• Add your own channel/Add RSS – If you know the exact RSS/Atom URL that you want to subscribe to (or if you have it copied into the device’s clipboard) you can enter and/or paste it here.
• Add your own channel/Add from Web Page – Our personal favourite, just enter the web URL of any known web site (like cbc.ca) and the service will search for any available RSS/Atom feeds on that page, return them as an OPML and allow you to subscribe to any or all of them.
• Add your own channel/Add Search Channel – Keep tabs on your favourite topics via RSS… enter some keywords and get a permanent feed that updates whenever new things appear on the ‘net.
• Blogs/Technorati Search – Search for blogs, or create feeds to search the Technorati archives for items based on keywords. Alternately, browse the a collection of predefined Technorati blog categories for all your editorial needs.
• Services/Track A Package – Enter a tracking number for USPS, DHL or Purolator, and get a feed showing you exactly where your package is (or isn’t).
• Local Events and Weather/ Your Local Events – A great example of our discovery scripting tools (and something we want to make big improvements on over time – think: GPS), you can locate a major city center near you to find local happenings and goings-on. Look for a lot more on this front coming soon.

Take advantage of the new “Add Channel” feature in the first release of Viigo … available first for BlackBerry!