Feedwhip

March 16, 2006 11:16 AM

Feedwhip monitors web pages and emails you when they change. This is handy for keeping tabs on a site without an RSS feed.
posted by turbodog (16 comments total)

New dog, same trick.

And it sends you emails, which you have to collect, which take as much time as just checking your normal list of sites.

This is only useful if you keep the notices to a minimum, and work in an office where you can't be seen checking the regular haunts.

If you really want to have fun, use it on a subscription to MeFi.
posted by mystyk at 11:30 AM on March 16, 2006

I'm trying it out now, to see if it will tell me whenever a new bill is introduced in Congress, and when a new bill on a specific subject is introduced. If it works properly, the service will be very, very useful. I should know something tomorrow.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:46 AM on March 16, 2006

mystyk: actually, I'm only using it for work at the moment. I have a list of sites that may change, once, at any time in the next couple of months. It's waaay to much trouble to remember to scan those pages every day for weeks on end.
posted by turbodog at 12:06 PM on March 16, 2006

That reminds me. Those carrier pigeons from the dotcom boom never arrived with my updates. I deserve a refund.
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:28 PM on March 16, 2006

So close, yet so far. Imagine if only they watched websites for you, and told you when they updated via an RSS feed?
posted by mendel at 1:16 PM on March 16, 2006

If I give these guys my e-mail address, am I buying myself a lifetime's worth of spam?
posted by Faze at 1:24 PM on March 16, 2006

Indeed, mendel, indeed. Why don't more sites just get a RSS feed - it's not like you need fancy software to do it! Why not a site that generates a RSS feed from HTML - does a site exist, and if not, why not - that's the real need, no? (And no, scraping sites that charge you for this don't count).
posted by rmm at 2:04 PM on March 16, 2006

The 'Page Update Checker' extension for firefox does the same. Works great for me, but some people appear to have problems with it. Also, no email required.
posted by batou_ at 2:12 PM on March 16, 2006

I just started using FeedYes, which generates feeds for sites that don't have them. I think I learned about from a question on AskMe, in fact.
posted by stefanie at 2:25 PM on March 16, 2006

Or I guess I could just set up a cron with wget or something.
posted by cellphone at 3:04 PM on March 16, 2006

If you're a Bloglines user, just give them a Bloglines-generated email address. Presto, instant RSS feed.
posted by dmd at 6:10 PM on March 16, 2006

The notification I set up yesterday worked. It's a bit clunky, but it did let me know that there were three new pieces of legislation on "Health and Human Services" introduced yesterday. I think it's cool. Hope I don't get spammed, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:49 AM on March 17, 2006

works like a charm to monitor noaa updates for my region. thx.
posted by RockyChrysler at 9:20 AM on March 17, 2006

I've had these services before, and they've gone out of business one right after the other. I currently use WatchThatPage which works very well, although they only check your targeted sites once a day which is less than ideal. Feedwhip says you can customize the frequency of the changes they send you, but is it once a day checking as well?
posted by JParker at 9:51 AM on March 17, 2006

I've gotten three updates in the last 12 hours on one of my searches, JParker.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:10 PM on March 17, 2006

anyone else found a good (free) email-to-RSS service out there? Mailbucket.org does ok, but it truncates long emails... Other ones I've found just RSS-ify the email subject and then point to a webpage with the body of the email... help?
posted by mhh5 at 3:04 PM on March 17, 2006