RSS Continues to Make Our Lives Easier

Lots of interesting news this week, all pointing to the fact (and demonstrating) how different RSS applications are actually making our lives easier.

Yes, RSS is not only a tool for publishers to deliver their news and other similar content to their readers, but a tool that can profoundly help consumers in making their lives easier. And it's just getting started ...

Unique-to-Me Info Updates

A breakthrough from Bloglines ...

Starting today, people can track the shipping progress of package deliveries from some of the world's largest parcel shipping companies-FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service-within their Bloglines MyFeeds page. Package tracking in Bloglines encompasses international shipments, in English. Bloglines readers can look forward to collecting more kinds of unique-to-me information on Bloglines in the near future, such as neighborhood weather updates and stock portfolio tracking.

While it seems we're talking about RSS, David Berlind actually reveals otherwhise:

What I've been calling "personal RSS," and Bray has called "private syndication," Bloglines is calling Unique-To-Me Info Updates. But as I learned from Bloglines founder Mark Fletcher, it's not really RSS (though it could be for those who really want it to).

According to Fletcher, each of the different shippers have a variety of APIs so that third parties can access their shipping information. Among the various APIs, one is usually XML-based and it is those XML APIs that Bloglines is taking advantage of. However, Bloglines is not converting the data it mines through those XML APIs into RSS feeds that can be subscribed to with any RSS reader.

Whether it's RSS or not, it's the next step ...

RSS For Job Search

Indeed is provides its visitors with job seeking results from hundreds of sites --- and they can use RSS to subscribe to their search results, pertaining to what they're looking for.

With the familiar look and feel of general search engines, Indeed makes it easy for job seekers to drill down by keyword and location to jobs that fit their requirements precisely. Advanced search options are also available, such as searching on a particular company name, a particular job title, or specifying a maximum commuting distance. Job searches can be saved as email alerts or RSS feeds, enabling users to track their searches continuously.

Coupons Delivered Via RSS

Nothing special about this (hey, it's still making our lives easier:), except for the way that AdRants puts it:

"Apparently, the growing popularity of RSS feeds could not be ignored. Not an all bad idea for those that hate schlepping pounds and pounds of newspaper coupons to the dump each week, the coupons delivered to RSS subscribers are also updated simultaneously on Coupons, Inc.'s recently introduced CouponBar, - a toolbar directly installed into Web browsers that features an updated list of available offers. Combine this with A9 and no one ever has to leave their desk again to shop anymore. Here's to an even fatter America."