Feed readers and content aggregation tools, like the once legendary (now retired) Google Reader, can be used to read content updates published in RSS format — providing a convenient method for reading serialized content from multiple Web sites. Despite the overall convenience, feed readers lack the ability to prioritize or notify you of updates from specific sites.
Consider the following scenario. You maintain a blog using WordPress. This open source blogging platform is patched on a regular basis to correct bugs and security faults. Notification of software updates is essential for maintaining the security and integrity of your blog. Content and blog software configuration information could be compromised by a hacker who exploits known security flaws. To stay informed of software patches you can either visit the developer site regularly, subscribe to the developer blog RSS feed, or login to your WordPress installation and manually install patches — WordPress does not maintain a patch notification mailing list.
What if you are on vacation or away from the office for an extended period of time? Winnowing through RSS feeds or visiting the WordPress developer blog will not be convenient. What if you could have RSS updates from sources specified by you emailed to you? Emails could be pushed to your mobile device or to an account you would check daily.
Blogtrottr is a free service that aggregates feeds published in RSS, XML, and ATOM formats and emails them directly to you. The service is summarized on the FeedMyInbox Web site:
Using the service is a four step process:
- Visit https://blogtrottr.com/
- Enter a Web site URL of the site you want updates from
- Enter your email address
- Press the “Feed Me” button
You will receive an email asking you to click a link to confirm that you are opting in to the Blogtrottr service.
