Feedster Review

Feedster is sort of like the ugly step-sister to Technorati. It offers much of the same sort of toolset, yet in a more clunky sort of way.

Here is what Feedster offers the general user:

• Search Today’s Internet. Very similar to searching Technorati’s World Live Web. It searches among blogs, news feeds and the like.
• Search Links. Find out what blogs are linking to each other. I found this to be very limited. I entered in a blog I know to be very popular and it bascially crashes every time I try the search. Even when I get items returned, sometimes it displays 10 per page then 3 on the next page, then 5 on the next page, etc.
• Search Blogs only. Search blogs without searching commercial newsfeeds and the like.
• Feedfinder. The first of two items that make Feedster different from Technorati. Use their search mechanism to directly find feeds to add to your own personal RSS Reader/Aggregator. This is helpful, but can be frustrating at the same time. I have written about my frustrations here.
• Add your own feed to Feedster. You can add the feed from your blog (or any blog for that matter) to the Feedster database.
• My Feedster. A series of services for Feedster members. This is Free. You can claim your feed, just like in Technorati. This identifies you as the owner of that feed. You can use Feedster as your personal online aggregator. Very clunky and ugly. There are so many tools that already do this that far outshine what Feedster provides. Feedpapers are the second item that makes Feedster distinct. Feedpapers allow users to create a single feed out of multiple feeds. Are there ten sites you read that you wish you could see all the posts via one feed? Then create a Feedpaper.

In short, it is worth it to submit your feed to the Feedster database and even sign up and claim it. If anything, it will provide another avenue for other bloggers to find you. Feedster could REALLY stand out if they did three things:

• Cleaned up their feed database as I propose.
• Cleaned up their navigation and made it look and feel less clunky.
• Make Feedpapers more user friendly.