Got FEEDS? Check out Feedest.com

**Midano** · 07:27 PM

Hi guys.
Just launched:

www.feedest.com

In a nutshell - a feed (RSS/RDF/Atom/Podcast) directory/reader/aggregator with social bookmarking twist.

Example of a feed detail page:
http://www.feedest.com/feedShow.cfm/feed/5152417A5B

Looks familiar? Tag it! Comment, save, share.
Have your own feeds? Not in our database? Add them! All you need to do is submit the feed's URL. The system takes care of the rest - parse, validate, index, grab a screenshot.

Any feedback is much appreciated.
Notice the bookmarklets under the logo - new launch can use a little boost.

Thank you for looking,
Leo.

**Republikin** · 04-25-2007, 06:04 PM

I like the design however the navigation is by no means intuitive. You may want to set some kind of visual cues so people know that clicking on those bars will expand them. You also might want to set your tag-cloud to be expanded by default when the page first opens.

Other than that interesting concept and attractive design. Good work.

**koporc** · 04-26-2007, 04:16 AM

The design is not that good but the whole site is ok !

**Midano** · 04-26-2007, 10:20 AM

Republikin.
Thank you for your input. I'll be making some adjustments to indicate the expandable panels.

koporc.
Would you mind elaborating what exactly is "not so good" with the deisgn? Otherwise your reply is rather pointless.

**ADAM Web Design** · 04-26-2007, 11:23 AM

I have to admit, it looks okay, but I feel the same way about the overall usability. It's too tough to navigate.

For example, you have two boxes for "add new feeds". One is clearly "add multiple feeds" but doesn't say that.

I also added my feed (www.walkonmypath.com/feed) but it never showed up. It said that it was added, and it is a valid feed, but it doesn't show up. Is there a time delay or something? An approval process perhaps? I don't get this.

Also, the Javascripts for everything don't work for me. I'd add a few more menu items to the main menu and let the individual elements open up as pages...the way you have it now is a bit too awkward.

I don't see where the social bookmarking twist comes in either. It just looks like a feed dump a la Technorati to me.

**Midano** · 12:20 PM

Hello Adam.
Thank you for your input.

Yes, there are two forms on the "Add feeds" page. The top is for a single URL, the bottom is bulk. I'm thinking about getting rid of the first one and leaving the bulk input only.

Your URL didn't submit properly because it didn't have the "http://" prefix. This is now corrected, so the script will process all input with "http://", "https://", "www" prefixes - or without them. Thank you for pointing that out.

Your feed was successfully added. See here:
http://www.feedest.com/feedShow.cfm/feed/5152427C5F - including stats, screen grab, etc.

The social bookmarking is implemented exactly the way it works at del.icio.us - the users assign tags (as opposed to attempting to categorize the feeds). The only difference is that this concept is applied to tagging feeds instead of web pages. This is the essence of social bookmarking.

**ADAM Web Design** · 04-26-2007, 01:35 PM

Weird...I put the http:// prefix in. I always do. Ah well, as long as it works.

And how would I assign tags to my feed?

**Midano** · 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

And how would I assign tags to my feed?

Hi Adam.
To tag/comment you have to be a regsitered member. The registration is an easy 4-field form and the accounts get activated immediately.
Open the feed detail page: http://www.feedest.com/feedShow.cfm/feed/5152427C5F

Expand the "Save/Tag/Bookmark" panel and enter your tags (space-separated one-word designators, just like del.icio.us) and your comment. Both tags and the comments can be edited or deleted later if needed. When other members tag your feed, the system will suggest 5 top most popular tags (among everyone who already tagged it).
You can keep your tags/comments private if you don't want others to see it in your profile.
The similar tags for different feeds create instant connections, so the system will be able to suggest related feeds, related tags. This will also impact the search ranking within the system - just like Google does, the more people save/tag your feed, the higher it will appear in search queries.
I'm still finishing up the advanced search with more options - limit search to titles, descriptions, tags, URLs, comments, etc. - in any combination.

**loganeast** · 04-26-2007, 02:38 PM

I think the design is very inventive. You did a great job. But I have to agree that its not very intuitive. On the details page, I think it would be nice if the feed details were expanded by default. When the page was loading, I saw a lot of stuff I wanted to view about the feed, but then it disappeared when the page finished loading and it took me a few moments to find it again. The expanding/contracting panels are really cool, but not that useful.

It looks like the site works the way you want it to (I searched a couple feeds and added both valid and invalid feeds and it all worked). It looks very funky and modern, but it was a little hard to use.

Good job though.

**loganeast** · 04-26-2007, 02:46 PM

Just to let you know: When I hit the Fluid Width button, I got an error. Here's a screen cap of it. http://www.loganwest.com/error.jpg

**Midano** · 04-26-2007, 02:55 PM

Hello Joe.
Thank you for your feedback.
Good point on the feed details page. I removed divs for the top panel, so it doesn't collapse staying open when the page is loaded.

Thank you for adding your feeds. Tag them!

**Midano** · 04-26-2007, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loganeast

Just to let you know: When I hit the Fluid Width button, I got an error. Here's a screen cap of it. http://www.loganwest.com/error.jpg

Thanks Joe.
I'll fix that.