Monitor web pages without Atom or RSS

idea
#1

I have some website that have no RSS/Atom at all,
but I still wanna keep tracking them,

so I use Page2RSS,
but some of them got forbidden by Page2RSS without reason that makes me have to use FireFox addon Update Scanner to keep an eyes on them,

I just wanna makes all them in one place.

1 Like
#2

Having recently discovered page2rss, I too think this would be a neat feature. Not a super-awesome-omg feature, but something that would be handy for a variety of reasons.

#3

This is an interesting idea but it’s so hard to build that I don’t know if it would be worthwhile. It’s also not quite in scope for newsblur.

#4

I know this is old, but I’d still like to see this. The minimal variant would just be:

  1. Store a copy of the page on first check.
  2. On 2nd check show just the changes (even just the raw code if that’s easier to do)
  3. Repeat :slight_smile:

To start it could be limited at 1 check a day.

I think it would be a great addition to the paid feature set (or limit free plan to 1 page check) and some competitors do seem to offer this (haven’t tried them - I’m using Update Scanner but having it hosted would let it be more consistent).

For bonus advocacy points we could have the option to write PleaseOfferAtomFeedsYourUsersWantThem to some part of the message where it might get picked up by analytics. RSS/Atom feeds aren’t being promoted and we should endeavor to change that.

I can see several use cases for this minimal variety:

  • A business wanting to keep track of competitors/partners sites
  • Someone wanting to subscribe for job updates to site that doesn’t support it
  • Waiting for product launches, sales

I think that’s enough new use cases to increase the product value to get some more paid customers.

#5

You know, of all the high priority tickets on my list, this is probably #1. And I recently figured out the interface for the diffs. Basically the pipeline will involve the Text view showing diffs, but across the entire page and not just the article. There will be an option to toggle between the whole page and the found article, but switching between the two will probably be site-specific.

That text diff will be shown as the content, instead of the page itself. I believe a text+large images-only view of the page will be useful. And this will probably be part of the new Premium Pro subscription at $1/day.

2 Likes
#6

Happy to hear it’s being worked on. Had no idea that was #1!

Were you thinking the large image version would be a part of the Premium Pro and a simpler view would be part of the Premium? That works for me :). Another would be Free gets 1 site, Premium gets 64, and Pro gets more.

Happy to provide feedback if there is somewhere I could take a look. Thank you!