If I was tweeting this, I might make up a silly hash tag like
#CoolNewTechnologyIJustFoundThatsBeenOutForEons
I use Gmail extensively, got my CogDogness, as well as over the last few weeks, I have ditched the desktop email client and using the Gmail version of our NMC Google Apps email. By finding my oldest Gmail message, I’ve been using it since July 2005 (and have amassed pile that is 3% of the capacity)– yet a lesson of the web tech crazy pace is that there is always something new to learn. You never get to the end.
Since I’ve been Gmailing so long I have pretty much ignored the ticker tape of “web clips” or news/ad-like things that sit atop the inbox.
Until today.
I noticed a link to “edit” the web clips, which is a tab inside the settings, and likely has been there a long time (learn more about Gmail web clips…). Woah, neo, of course- those are all RSS! And… you can remove all the ones you dont want (i zapped them all)… and… drumroll- you can add your own RSS URLs!
For a test, I added feeds for comments to my blog and to my flickr account. Essentially, the web clips are turned into a mini feed mixer (although the docs say the clips are displayed randomly, not sequentially).
So now, instead of unwanted cruft from cookbooks, forbes, my gmail ticker has my own feed items atop my inbox:
I am not 100% sure how useful this is, but now in my email reading, I can get some notifcation using the clips I want, not theirs.
And that. my friends, is a good thing. Good web dog.
Good web dog indeed! Awesome find, or perhaps I should say, reveal. When I read:
“I noticed a link to ‘edit’ the web clips”
I stopped dead. I paused a moment to take in the awesomeness of how good it feels to control what gets thrown in my face. I had taught myself to automatically ignore all the ads to the point where I don’t even see them any more.
Now I’ll have to unlearn and relearn. Thanks for this Alan.
I just did the same thing you did with your feeds but then wondered:
“I’ve already read the comments on my blog and flickr account. What might be something I’d like to be updated about that I don’t often look at with my own eyes?”
I added the feed from my FriendFeed account.
I love this stuff. 😉
Just an update. I’ve been doing this for about three weeks now. Deleted the comments feed from my blog and flickr account; it became redundant and added no value to my Web Clips.
But, the Friend Feed has been GREAT! Recently I’ve had an uptick in the number of people following my FriendFeed and, likewise, the number of “Friends” added to my own “Feed”. I keep stumbling across cool stuff people are sharing in their feed as I work through my email. MOst recently your bookmark of Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life.
I’m finding this to be a great value add. Again, thanks for the tip.
Cheers!