Feedster Hosts Develoment Contest and Launches Blog Search
Feedster, the RSS and blog search engine today announced the launch of its developer network and contest for best new applications and uses for its technology. iPods will be awarded to the winners for the best use of Feedster in the following categories: standalone RSS aggregator, Web application, invoking a specific category (i.e. jobs.feedster.com), tutorial for RSS newbies, advanced search documentation, Safari extension, Firefox extension, Thunderbird extension, with a publishing engine like TypePad or WordPress. iPods will also be given for winners of the oddest use of Feedster and a wildcard for the overall favorite application.
“To show our appreciation for the efforts developers put forth to conceive new and innovative uses for Feedster’s Search applications, we created a contest with a meaningful reward,” said Scott Johnson, VP Engineering. “I am often amazed by the ideas that are conceived as extensions or new applications to our technology. I hope this contest will provide added incentive for new ideas.”
The field is not limited to new development. In fact, applications that have already been submitted to www.feedsterhacks.com are qualified for consideration. Feedster Hacks is a weblog and directory for the various hacks that have been created with Feedster. A hack can include a boookmarklet, an advanced search mechanism, or even a useful way of using Feedster for RSS and blog search. Steven M. Cohen of librarystuff.net independently launched www.feedsterhacks.com recently to create a directory and central repository for new extensions and uses for Feedster’s search applications.
Feedster has also launched their blogs only search at http://blogs.feedster.com Apparently there is so much non-blog information floating around in RSS feeds now. Feedster CEO Scott Rafer adds “The point is, all the hard-core bloggers are annoyed at all the random stuff in the database, such as jobs and news and stuff.” Michael Bazeley of Silicon Beat adds that “So much non-blog information is now syndicated through XML feeds that it’s becoming harder to hone in on purely blogosphere buzz or info.”
Hat tip to Search Engine Lowdown on the Feedster Blog Search piece.
