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RSS is powerful, for sure. I’ve been a fan of it since before it was supported natively within the web browser. I built a service called TagJag, where you can go to look for things you want to buy. It will generate RSS search feeds that you can subscribe to. Why would you want to do that? Let me explain, my dear Watson.

When you open the TagJag site, you will see a search box. Enter your search term in there. It can be as broad or as specific as you want. It depends on you, and if you know exactly what you’re looking for. Once you click the “Search” button, you’ll get a list of results from places like eBay and Amazon. You’ll even get a listing of related items.

Where the power of TagJag lies is within the little RSS feed icon. If you click it, it will take you to the full-on RSS feed for that search. If you subscribe to that feed with your reader, you’ll be notified every time something new is added to that particular search result feed.

The reason I’m showing you all of this is that I’m going to teach you how to integrate Amazon searches, eBay searches, YouTube searches and more all from within Windows 7. Let’s say you want to search for results in my blog. Now that I’ve installed a Search Connector (simple text file), I have an option in my search tree within my Windows 7 that says “Chris Pirillo”. I enter a word within the search bar, and bam… it searches my blog. RSS search is the gateway! I’m able to search for things on my blog without even having to go to my blog!

Remember that Amazon search feed I showed you earlier? After integrating it within a Search Connector file, I will just double-click to install it. Presto… it was added to my Windows search tree. Yeah, I can go to Amazon and search for things, or to my blog or YouTube. But why would I? This is so much easier, and faster.

Download the Search Connectors onto your install of Windows 7, and see how much simpler your life will be!

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How To Search Amazon, YouTube, and Twitter in Windows 7

Until a few more legal loopholes get closed, I won’t be able to expand much further upon the whole “I’m offering you a stake in TagJag” concept; I’d rather underpromise and overdeliver on this idea. I’m on the lookout for some kind of hip lawyer who can help us get it wrapped up. It’s a community-building effort, so I’m hoping to find someone who understands what that means. I should probably talk to Buzz and/or Denise, eh? No matter, I have to show you a couple of emails before I explain why I did what I did with Brad, Jeff, and Rick (the VCs) at Gnomedex.

Today I launched the second version of Omgili, an innovative, advanced search engine for discussions. The new release presents many new features and technology innovations that make Omgili the leading search engine for information rich discussion forums. I have been using Gada.be (now TagJag) for a while (mainly for research) and really enjoyed it. It’s simple, smart, effective and does the job! That’s why I think Omgili’s results will be a great addition to TagJag. Omgili covers tens of thousands forums and millions of discussions (including Google and Yahoo Answers), adding it to TagJag will contribute to the richness of the fantastic TagJag service.

I know it’s still too geeky, but that’s one publisher who understands that we’re helping him get his set of unique results out there. The filtering and sorting are coming – and after Shayne read Matt’s post on the matter, he believes he knows how to make “it” work better. The audience feedback wasn’t challenging, it was enlightening and reassuring (as I had been thinking along the very same lines, but lacked more than a single developer to execute upon them). Here’s the second email, from Brian Dear:

I’m sitting here watching your TagJag presentation at Gnomedex… I noticed that there are “EVDB” results under “Entertainment” – cool! Could you rename the “EVDB” to be “Eventful”? That’s the name we’re using these days as the main brand (EVDB is the underlying business-to-business brand).

They’re not the only “smaller” publishers who understand the concept of leveling the search playing field while still retaining their original identity, results, and feed link. Again, sorting and filtering are coming – but it all starts with the growing list of publishers. A few weeks ago, Brian Carrozzi emailed me asking… “With whom can I speak in regards to getting our videos indexed from http://videos.gabcity.com ?” They know they’re not a “YouTube,” so they have to use every means necessary to spread their brand.

Ponzi has some fantastic ideas for the next iteration, and I’ve gotta get a few more things organized before impending efforts can roll forward. What you see is not what you’re going to get – and the question asked at Gnomedex was clearly answered. Should TagJag get funded? As I learned by sticking my neck out: NO. Does it need more resources? I already knew the answer to that question: YES.

Happy TagJag’ed Publishers

Don’t expect every one of these searches to yeild results, though. The output was generated by a single OPML file and the Optimal OPML WordPress Plugin. Looking for other easy ways to display the OPML from Gada.be right now. Hell, entirely new sites could be built on top of the OPML we produce – much like RSS, it’s a poor man’s API.

Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot

This morning, a subscriber notified us that one of our master feeds was broken. I loaded ‘er up in IE, only to (once again) be faced with cripped pieces of feedback. Yes, the browser shows me part of the error, but doesn’t actually tell me where the error is! Without some form of context, I have to dig deeper. Screw that. I have to fire up FireFox just to learn more about a problem. IE7 better be better on the code troubleshooting front. In related news, our new forums output RSS for searches. The server is definitely being brought to its knees, but we’re getting another one in place ASAP. You want proof? You can’t handle the proof.

IE Makes it Impossible to Troubleshoot Feeds