Saving a stream of links to my HD

January 19, 2006 10:23 PM

How could I capture the steady stream of popularly ranked links on a web site (in this case http://del.icio.us/popular/). I thought it would be a snap with an RSS-enabled site - but after googling/trying different RSS readers, I am overwhelmed and have not found a solution. The idea is to capture the links on my hard drive so I don't miss anything if I'm away for a few days. (Bonus if I can weed out the repeats!)
posted by parma to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Newsgator (online reader) has options for viewing older links (it's an option under Article Display Options). No suggestions on weeding out duplicates, though.
posted by Leon at 2:06 AM on January 20, 2006

This is exactly what RSS readers are for; personally I would look for a program rather than a website, simply so I could be sure the data was held locally.

If you use a Mac (you didn't say either way), try NetNewsWire. It was recently purchased by Newsgator but remains in full development. It's a matter of a checkbox or two to say "keep checking this feed every hour, and keep saving every news item even if it expires from the feed."
posted by bcwinters at 5:06 AM on January 20, 2006

Here's the thing, if you leave your computer off for a few days, you'll miss things because they'll simply be pushed off the feed by newer items. What you should think about is a hosted RSS reader like Bloglines. They're always updating, so you can get the new items on your own schedule.

Bloglines also has an API, so programs like NetNewsWire can download updated items from your Bloglines account, without having to worry that NNW is missing stuff.
posted by revgeorge at 6:04 AM on January 20, 2006

My computer is on 24/7 . But online would be just as good. (I have an WinXP machine.)

Tried Bloglines: turns out the RSS feed snips away lots of the I was hoping to preserve. Could I use software that captures a page at particular times of the day?
posted by parma at 11:39 AM on January 20, 2006