

Follow changes to sites without RSS feeds with GReader - johns
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2010/01/follow-changes-to-any-website.html

======
sjs382
Damn. Just tested it on a site that I lost interest in [1] because a feed isnt
offered. The service doesnt work for the particular site because there _is_ an
RSS feed, but it contains the wrong content. :(

[1] <http://www.kuro5hin.org/section/Diary> if anyone cares. The RSS feed
points to the main page rather than the diaries page.

~~~
baguasquirrel
Have you tried <http://www.feedbeater.com> ?

More specifically:
[http://www.diffbot.com/api/rss/http://www.kuro5hin.org/secti...](http://www.diffbot.com/api/rss/http://www.kuro5hin.org/section/Diary)

Disclosure: I hung out with the guys who did that site last summer.

~~~
sjs382
No, I haven't! Thank you!

------
tsally
I use the Firefox extension Update Scanner to much the same effect:
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3362>. No complaints so far,
although my use has been mild. Note that you'll need to install via the beta
channel if you've got Firefox 3.6.

------
synarch
I think this could be a really good source of data for Google. If a lot people
use this it could be used as one more way to ensure search quality.

~~~
sjs382
Agreed. And it's a great way to crowdsource checking of "What parts of this
page are meaningful?" (Provided there's a way to give feedback)

~~~
synarch
I think personalization is the only way to reduce web spam.

------
emilschutte
People interested in this might like a site I launched a while back:

<http://www.readfresh.com>

Feedback is appreciated!

------
trevorturk
I've been using <http://www.changedetection.com/> but this would be a nice
change - less email for me ;)

------
sumeetjain
If this gains wide usage, it could be a boon to RSS adoption. Users could
eventually learn to think of websites as collections of changing content, so
they'll have less difficulty accepting the use case that RSS offers.

Some people might even think RSS is introduced as an _enhancement_ to this
Google feature.

(Or maybe this implementation will become so solid that RSS becomes
unnecessary, but I doubt it.)

~~~
Timothee
The catch-22 is that this feature would be used by people who use Google
Reader and thus who know of RSS and its benefits.

~~~
sumeetjain
Understood, but I can imagine a website displaying a button for "Get notified
when we add new information" or something to that effect. Personally, I'd love
to see more these buttons on local government websites, which are notorious
for not having RSS feeds. So people might _begin_ to use Google Reader upon
discovering this new feature.

------
fossguy
Cool stuff. I have been using Sucuri's Network Integrity monitor for the same
thing... I monitor my own sites and some pages that I am interested to be
notified when they change.

That can be very useful as an intrusion detection system if your pages are
modified without you knowing it.

Link for sucuri: <http://sucuri.net>

------
jeff18
This takes me back... Internet Explorer 5 for Mac used to support a widely
lauded feature similar to this, where you could "subscribe" to a page and it
would tell you when it updated.

RSS pretty much obsoleted the feature and I have never seen it in a browser
since. There have definitely been times when it would be useful, and I'm glad
it's in Google Reader now!

------
gnosis
Yet another service that requires giving up information about yourself (in
this case it's which websites you read) in order to use it.

It would be much more valuable if it was a stand-alone application which did
not require communicating any information to Google in order to use it.

~~~
jeff18
If you're philosophically opposed to web applications why are you
participating in Hacker News?

~~~
gnosis
Because they're not directly making money off of me.

I used to comment on movies on IMDB until they took the information I and
others submitted to their free website and went commercial, putting tons of
ads up and clearly started making money off of my contributions.

I also refuse to give reviews to Amazon for similar reasons.

I'm ok with participating in non-commercial forums, as I feel they are less
likely to sell information about me than sites which have gone commercial.

Also, I don't really view forums as tools for collecting information about
their participants, unlike all the "free" web-services run by corporations. I
suppose forums could be used for this purpose, but I think at this point it's
just less likely. But it's definitely something to consider.

~~~
slig
> I also refuse to give reviews to Amazon for similar reasons.

I could not picture myself bothered by Amazon reviews. They help decide when
to and when to not buy. They also help me decide between two books on the same
subject, gives me tips on another titles/authors that I didn't know, etc.

~~~
gnosis
Oh, I'm not bothered by other people giving reviews on Amazon. But I wouldn't
do it myself unless Amazon paid me.

------
dc2k08
I'd like it more if it allowed the user to define the search pattern and
output template for each created feed like some services which I already use
and pay for do.

