How to Add RSS feeds to your Outlook May 29, 2008
Posted by Doriano "Paisano" Carta in Blogs, Microsoft, rss.Tags: Microsoft Office, outlook, rss
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How to Add RSS feeds to your Outlook
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way for content publishers to make news, blogs, and other content available to subscribers. You can add your favorite RSS Feeds as subscriptions in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. There are a couple of ways to add an RSS Feed.
Adding a single feed at a time
Copy the feed URL that you want to add to Outlook
Go to the RSS folder in Outlook and Right-Click the root
The following menu will appear:
Select the Add a New RSS Feed (Third choice from the top)
Paste the RSS URL in the following box
Important Tip: Outlook seems to like XML RSS Feeds the best so whenever possible select that type of feed. It will look like this: 
View Feed XML
If you don’t see that link, you can try adding ?format=xml to the end of their rss feed.
How to add a collection of RSS feeds
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 supports the .opml file format for exchanging a collection of RSS Feed configuration information between programs that can organize and display RSS Feeds. Such programs are known as RSS aggregators. Office Outlook 2007 includes the functionality of an RSS aggregator.
A collection of RSS Feeds is shared by exporting it to an XML file with the .opml file extension and sending the file to the other person. You can attach the .opml file in an e-mail message, copy the .opml file to a network shared folder that both people have access to, or copy the .opml file to removable media such as a disk, CD, or a memory device. The other person can then import the .opml file and choose which RSS Feeds to add to Outlook.
In Office Outlook 2007, a collection of RSS Feeds can be exported to a file with the .opml extenstion.
You can import a file with the .opml extension to Office Outlook 2007 or other RSS programs.
- On the File menu, click Import and Export.
- Select Import RSS Feeds from an OPML file.
- Click Next.
- Click Browse to specify where the file to be imported is located, and then click Open.
- Click Next.
- Select the Feed name check box for each subscription that you want to import.
Tip Click Select All or Clear All to quickly select or clear all check boxes.
Note You are importing only the subscription information, not the actual items from the subscription.
- Click Next.The .opml file is imported to Office Outlook 2007
How to export Your Google Reader RSS Collection as an OPML file
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Click the Manage Subscriptions link and click the Import/Export option
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Save the file to your local system
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Now you can import your Google Reader feeds into Outlook (all of them or selected feeds)
What You See Is What You Get May 23, 2008
Posted by Doriano "Paisano" Carta in Blogs, Google.Tags: Google, Google Docs, web apps
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Google has finally added a much needed View Menu to Google docs. You can now view your documents with fixed width and margins much like desktop word processors! This is a step in the right direction for online web applications if they seriously want to challenge traditional desktop applications.
While this might not seem like a big deal at first glance, it really is more important that it appears. This gives Google docs a much improved look n’ feel that closely resembles Microsoft Word which means improved user acceptance. It will also attract more bloggers to use google docs for posting directly to their blogs. Here’s a screenshot of the publishing options:
Final Thoughts:
I applaud Google for adding this and other new features. I look forward to the battle between desktop apps and web apps!
Magic Kingdom of Marketing and Technology May 19, 2008
Posted by Doriano "Paisano" Carta in Business, Marketing, Uncategorized.Tags: Business, Disney, Marketing
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After a week of incredible fun in Disney World, I’ve come away from the experience filled 
with wonderful memories of precious moments with my family. I’m also filled with awe with Disney’s amazing skills in marketing and use of technology. No one takes more advantage of these tools more than they do when it comes to benefiting their business.
Sure, they are the ultimate merchants of fun, but they fully understand the importance of using everything possible when it comes to satisfying their customers (family members). Here are just some of the brilliant things that I noticed during my week there:
FastPass
The biggest complaint about the Disney experience or any large park adventure is always about the long lines and waiting. Disney implements a fantastic technology called the FastPass which vastly reduces the amount of time you have to wait in line to go on a ride or see a show! Slide your ticket into a machine and out pops a new FastPass ticket with the time that you need to return to casually waltz into the ride/show of choice.
Brilliant Layouts, Maps & Guide Books
Disney does a great job with the layout of their parks and provides plenty of guide books and maps everywhere you go. The brilliant layout continues within each park as well. Take the Magic Kingdom for example. At the center of it all is Cinderella’s Castle which acts as the hub in the wheel. Each part of the park is divided into different themes which makes the experience much easier to manage and enjoy.
Excellent Revenue Generating Design
Another genius layout design that generates tremendous revenue is the way that most rides and shows exit into a gift store! They provide a pleasurable experience and get their customers all lathered up and lead them into the lion’s den full of merchandise related to the experience they just enjoyed! Do you hear the cash registers? Brilliance!
Illusions of Convenience
Many of the things that Disney provides customers appear to be merely convenience features but actually serve dual purposes such as yet another revenue generating enhancement tool. For example, being able to send anything you purchase at a gift ship automatically back to your hotel room not only allows you to enjoy your time in the park more because you don’t have to carry those packages around all day (convenience) but it also keeps customers in the park and gives the illusion that they haven’t purchased anything and thus encourages them to make more purchases and so on. Again, brilliance!
Also, customers who can afford to stay at the more expensive hotels close to Disney don’t even need to drive to the parks! They can just jump on the monorail or even a boat and slide right in, take their rides and make their purchases all day long.
Collecting on Collectibles
Everyone knows how masterful Disney has been when it comes to generating a frenzy for collecting their classic movies by stealing a page from the DeBeers family and how they’ve dominated the diamond industry by managing the laws of Supply and Demand. Well, Disney has tapped into another goldmine: Pin Collecting! Yes, it appears to be a very inexpensive and fun little hobby at first glance, but it can quickly become a huge investment. There’s even an official website for Disney Pin Collecting.
Summation
Please don’t mistake any of this as negative. I fully enjoyed my experience at Disney and cannot wait to go back! I’m just impressed with the way they do things over there. They are a well-oiled machine of entertainment and capitalism. All businesses should study Disney and emulate their efforts. Please your customers and they will gladly spend their money with smiles on their faces. I know I sure did!
Social Networking for Email May 4, 2008
Posted by Doriano "Paisano" Carta in Email, Social Aggregators, social networks, Uncategorized.Tags: Email, Inbox, outlook, tripit, xobni, xoopit
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There are new social networks for just about everything so it makes perfect sense that there will be a great deal of focus now on our inboxes. Yes, expect tremendous changes to come with the way we use email. Whether it’s webmail on the big players (yahoo, gmail, hotmail) or even on your desktop client like Outlook, email will never be the same again.
Here are several new innovative email services that will give you a glimpse of the future of the inbox. Remember, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Expect an avalanche of email tools and services to roll down the social networking mountain very soon.
Xobni (inbox spelled backwards) actually works inside your Microsoft Outlook email client. It improves searching for emails, attachments and contacts. It also reveals a great deal of information about the people you correspond with via email. One of the best features is the way it creates threaded conversations from your email exchanges.
Even the head-honcho Bill Gates himself seems impressed with Xobni.
Seeing is believing so checkout this video demo.
xoopit does things a little differently. It works with your GMail account (other platforms coming down the road) and lets you easily view all the photos, videos, and files buried in your e-mail as attachments and sent to you as links from across the Web.
Zenbe takes yet another approach to managing email. It doesn’t plug into your existing webmail account or desktop email client but offers to host your email and an entirely different tabbed interface.
Tripit is an excellent example of new service that integrates extremely well with your email account. In this case, they are a service for travelers who direct all emails related to their trip to their tripit account which organizes all of the tedious details from those emails and presents the data in a more user-friendly manner. Look for all new services to understand the value of using email accounts of their members instead of trying to re-invent the wheel or adding yet another messaging system to manage.
Fuser is an email account aggregator that manages all of your different types of email accounts in one place. Add your gmail, yahoo, hotmail and pop accounts along with the messages you receive from social networks like MySpace and facebook. It also supports Twitter and includes a full client which means you can even send tweets from within Fuser.
For more details about Fuser, they were covered in Inbox 2.0 in an earlier post.
Final Thoughts
Everyone has an email account so it’s a great idea to try to offer services that work with existing accounts. Whether it’s a plug-in, add-on, or just a connection to your email system, services would be wise to offer ways to work with your existing email account. Eventually, we will be able to do everything from within our inbox.
I.T. Happens! No. 11 May 2, 2008
Posted by Doriano "Paisano" Carta in Comic Strips, IT Happens.Tags: Comic Strips, Comics, IT Happens
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Here’s my homage to social networks.
Here’s the entire I.T. Happens series.
