Trackle: A cool new tool for info-surfing

Marc Fest, a programming wiz, entrepreneur and former journalist in Florida, has developed some very cool tools for time-challenged info junkies over the years. For a long time I began each morning with Quickbrowse, which lets you string together web pages from a couple of dozen sources (I used it chiefly for the front pages and section fronts of various newspapers) into a single long scrolling web page, complete with the original typography and links. I think I stopped using it when they started charging $ because I'm a broke writer again after those heady go-go dotcom days.

Well, Marc has done it again, with a tool that I'm increasingly using instead of RSS feeds. It's called Trackle, and it keeps track of up to 25 blogs or websites, sending you updates on a daily or hourly basis. You can set the frequency at, say, 8 am each day, or 8 am and 3 pm, or more often. In Trackle, all the graphics and typography is stripped away, leaving you with a plain-vanilla text feed of everything that has been updated since it last checked the page.

I find Trackle more convenient than RSS feeds because it combines all the pages you want into one long html email, complete with live hyperlinks. I'll be spending more time with RSS programs over the next month for a new article in OJR, but in the past I've felt that the dozens of updates on dozens of blogs throughout the day was too overwhelming to keep tabs on. (Cue throbbing temples.) Trackle helps me manage my day, keeping on top of conversations in the blogosphere, and in various media, about topics of interest: new media, participatory journalism, piracy, new technologies, and more. In that way it's more timely and provides more relevant results than Google Alerts.

A few days ago Marc added another new Trackle feature: at www.trackle.com/last you can now view a copy of the most recent delivery Trackle has sent you -- useful for those on the go or for anyone who uses more than one computer. (Marc uses this feature with his Blackberry when he's traveling.)

Marc plans additional improvements. Stuff I'd like to see (if a coder had lots of free time) include: the ability to highlight keywords or set them off in some way (for example, to see if anyone's talking about you, an extra step I now have to take by heading over to Feedster); the option to filter out certain kinds of information (Trackle can sometimes get cluttered); the option to update from a certain point in time (say, you missed three Trackles in a row, as I'll do this week when I head to Florida, and you would prefer to have your update combined into one package instead of three separate emails).

Trackle provides a free 14-day trial (no credit card required) and then costs $1.95 per month or $19.95 annually (cancel anytime). Check it out, it's a handy little service that may make your day more sane.