If you haven’t been following the web-tech circles lately, you may have missed the buzz surrounding Yahoo’s newest RSS tool – Pipes [1].
Pipes allows you to combine different data feeds, like RSS, into a single output. It’s similar to other feed tools, but the environment is all web based, with an interface that’s similar to visual programming applications. What makes this tool a winner though, is the logic behind the operations. You can filter, remix, and mash-up feeds to produce an incredible array of new content types.
While I think this is probably the most sophisticated RSS tool on the market to date, it is also not the easiest to grasp conceptually. For those interested in taking it for a spin, start with Yahoo’s product overview [2], and move on to these tutorials below:
- Nick Bradbury [3]
- Datamation [4]
- David Rothman [5] (Using Pipes to translate RSS feeds from English to French)
- Mr. Speaker [6]