RSS Aggregators

Aggregators that run on your PC are pieces of software you can download from a website and quickly and easily install. There are literally a few dozen different aggregators but here are some of the ones we're familiar with and you can easily download and try:

SharpReader RSS Aggregator: "SharpReader is an RSS Aggregator for Windows, created by Luke Hutteman."

nntp//rss: Bridging the worlds of NNTP clients and RSS feeds, nntp//rss is an application that will enable you to use your existing favorite NNTP newsreader to read your information channels.

NewsGator is a "news aggregator" that runs in Microsoft Outlook. It allows you to subscribe to various syndicated news feeds (such as weblogs, news sites, etc.) and have news from these sites be delivered right into your Outlook folders. There are thousands of sites which syndicate their content in RSS format, and many more being added every day. You can even read NNTP newsgroups with NewsGator.

RSS Bandit: a .NET RSS desktop feed aggregator.

Vox Lite allows you to keep up-to-date with all your favourite sources of information that support the RSS protocol.

BottomFeeder is a news aggregator client (RSS and Atom) written in VisualWorks Smalltalk. BottomFeeder runs on x86 Linux (also FreeBSD), PowerPC linux, Sparc Linux, Windows (98/ME/NT/2000/XP), Mac OS8/9, Mac OS X, AIX, SGI Irix, Compaq UNIX, HP-UX, and Solaris.

FeedDemon makes RSS newsfeeds as easy to access as your email.

NewsMonster is a news, weblog, and RSS aggregator that runs directly in your web browser. NewsMonster offers a superior web experience and outstanding integration with existing websites and weblogs that support RSS. Even sites that don't support RSS can work with NewsMonster.

Radio UserLand is a unique and powerful web publishing and weblog tool that is used and praised by many of the world's most accomplished web authors. With advanced features such as an integrated news aggregator, Radio enables users to do far more than is possible with the hosted-only weblog products offered by others.

In general PC based aggregators have a cleaner, more elegant interface and offer more features than web based aggregators. They also store your feeds locally so if you're traveling you have an archive of things to read. Web based aggregators require a connection at all times.

If you purchase an aggregator make sure it can import and export OPML -- a standard for sharing the feeds to which you subscribe. Without this you might be locked into a software package. Yes the Feedster aggregator imports and exports opml.