Keeping track of web sites

Dave_C_2

I read a lot of blogs on various subjects. At the moment I use Firefox "open all in tabs" on each folder in bookmarks to see if they have changed Obviously this takes a lot of time and effort.

Is there an easier way to keep track of blog sites so they can be flagged up as changed? Perhaps using RSS?

Or am I (as usual) missing something obvious?

TIA, Dave

Toxteth_OGrady

Google throws up something like this. Not sure if that'll do what you are after.

Used to use something along those lines years ago but damned if I can remember what it was :eek:

ADempsey

If they are actual blogs and you want to know if they've posted new content then subscribing to their RSS feeds is the best way to go.

The easiest way is to use Google Reader (google.com/reader), add the website as a subscription and it should automatically pick up the feed.

If a site has a news listing or something similar but no feeds, you can use a service to create a feed from the page, such as Feed43 (feed43.com) which can be a bit tricky to setup, but very handy once got your head around it.

If it's just one particular page you want to keep track of and you want to be informed of any changes throughout the page you can use a service like Change Detection (changedetection.com) which can be set to email with x% of a page changes, I use it to monitor pages which are manually updated.

Dave_C_2

I think you are missing the point here, or most likely I haven't explained it as well as I can.
I know about RSS feeds and some web sites are on the Firefox menu bar as RSS feeds as they change daily (for example the guardian on-line).

I have a folder in Firefox labelled "skeptics" with 6 individual web sites in it.
From bookmarks click on the folder and select "open all in tabs" or open them one at a time. Some of the sites only change once a flood and I waste time opening the site to see if it's changed.
Similar story for "bike" and "odds and sods" folders.

I need to see what's changed since the last time without opening each web site. Maybe some program to scan the RSS feeds.

mmm ... I wonder if I can set up a toolbar with RSS feeds that I can scan manually with a mouse hover. Time to go digging in Firefox help menus.
Dave

ADempsey

Unless I'm misunderstand that's exactly what Change Detection can do, it emails you when a monitored web page changes you can see what has been added and removed.

So you wouldn't need to check them all to see what's changed, you'd only need to visit them when emailed.

Dave_C_2

Update
Cracked it!
Thanks for the hint about RSS
Basically Firefox will let you subscribe to RSS feeds using Live Bookmarks and the feed will show in the Bookmarks toolbar.
Even better you can put folders in the Bookmarks toolbar, so now I have a folder in the bookmarks tool bar called skeptic. Then it's just a case of adding the skeptic sites one at a time to the folder.

A mouse click on the folder opens each RSS feed. The posts that I have read are shown in a different colour (grey) to unread posts (orange). No need to open posts that I have read - which is what I wanted.

Lather, rise, repeat for Bike and Odds and sods

Snag is some sites don't use RSS but I can live with that.

Dave

ADempsey

Glad you got it how you wanted it in end then.