Yahoo! Pipes Makes Lifestreams Easier

Post by Guest blogger Wayne Smallman. Wayne is the man behind the Blah, Blah! Technology blog: a focal point for his passion for technology, and a hallmark of his business mentality, writing style, and adeptness at making complex technology issues approachable and accessible. He is the principle founder and managing director of Octane Interactive, a design, Web applications development, and Internet marketing agency established in 1999 and based in Yorkshire, UK.

I’m guessing ’specificity’ is a word you don’t often hear, but it’s a word very much linked to Yahoo! Pipes. Now ‘versatile’ is a word you’re more likely to associate with Yahoo! Pipes, which is obvious, really. Hopefully, by the time you’ve finished reading this article, ‘indispensable’ will be another word to associate with this adaptable feed aggregation tool.

Yahoo! Pipes explained

By way of some background, let’s start with a brief explanation of what Yahoo! Pipes is all about. Put simply, Yahoo! Pipes let’s you pull together different feed sources (more commonly known as RSS) and turn them into just the one feed.

However — and here’s where the specificity kicks in — you can apply filters to those feeds. So for example, you can filter a feed based on date, words or phrases, perform actual searches within feed sources, limit, sort order, loop, truncate .. you get the idea, right?

Another word to throw casually into the mix would ‘intimidating’, because Yahoo! Pipes is a formidable beast when first used. There are some spectacularly complex Pipes in there, which do some bizarre stuff. But for the purposes of this article, we’re going to look at creating a simple Workstream, or maybe a Lifestream, but that depends on how you feel.

Making use of Yahoo! Pipes

For my main ‘blog feed, I have my own ‘blog articles (naturally) as well as my del.icio.us bookmarks. The reason being that my bookmarks act as pointers towards the topics I’m likely to be covering in the coming days and weeks. Also, those bookmarks can acts as research notes to the articles I’ve already written.

But I have another feed, which is my Lifestream. This feed includes my ‘blog articles, my del.icio.us bookmarks, the songs I’ve recently listened to via Last.fm and my Twitter and Jaiku feeds.

This is a pretty simple feed, but it’s an effective one. However, for those with sharper eyes, and those more familiar with Jaiku, you’ll have noticed that my Yahoo! Pipes contraption accomplishes little more than what I have already with Jaiku. While that’s true, Yahoo! Pipes is much more versatile — good word , eh?

What can you use Yahoo! Pipes for?

So you have friends and colleagues scattered hither & yonder, far & wide. You want these people to see your stuff and maybe even see where you are and when. And if you’re using a web service that makes use of geotagging, such as Jaiku, then you’ve got the where covered. The when is typically part & parcel of any feed these days.

An example I once gave, hinting at the power of geotagging and micro-blogging combined was with Twitter in mind:

“I recently added my mobile/cellphone number to Twitter so I could post updates while out & about. So now I can post from anywhere. Now imagine you’re planning something really social, the face-to-face, old-fashioned variety social gathering. So you’re out somewhere, you spot the right venue, you’ve got your stuff, you’re ready to roll, now all you need is an audience.

You’ve got your Twitter account, you’ve got hundreds if not thousands of friends. You whip out your mobile phone, you tap out a text message and wait for the people to emerge from anywhere & everywhere and you’re off to flyin’ start!”

So if you’re in a rock band, or a popular speaker (both used to traveling and working the stage), then being able to reach out to your audience is not just an ancillary benefit, but a huge differentiator, too. Being mobile no longer means being out of reach.

Let’s face it, it’s not like Yahoo! Pipes is this one-trick affair, especially when scientists are using Yahoo! Pipes these days. If those guys can, anyone can!

Creating a Lifestream with Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes can be a time saver and a productivity enhancer. But to the get the most out of it, you need to know how to use it. So here’s a really good tutorial video, explaining the basics, with the concepts neatly and graphically outlined.

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