If you are like me, you are always checking your RSS feeds. I use it to gather the latest news, whether it is related to tech, travel or gaming. As a writer, however, I tend to spend a lot of time working right from my desktop. So I have been looking for a good RSS ticker that would display right on my desktop. Well that is just what FeedRoller RSS Ticker promises to do.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES IT DO

Main Functionality

FeedRoller RSS Ticker is a small program that is designed to display your RSS feeds at the top of your desktop. The program will auto hide itself when you move your mouse over it (to prevent it from blocking something). The program can be used to display your Twitter and Atom feeds as well.

Pros

• Display your RSS, Atom and Twitter feeds right on your desktop
• Customizable interface
• Allows you to import or export feeds to other feed readers that you may use (using OPML)
• Lightweight program that does not take up a lot of your computer resources
• Can import feeds into Feedroller RSS Ticker directly from Firefox, if you use Firefox
• Can be “pinned” to the desktop so that it always shows as opposed to automatically hiding when you hover over it
• Can be told to automatically hide itself when a full screen program is run
• Completely portable; no installation required

Cons

• Slightly distracting
• No Google Reader sync

Discussion

Really, there is not much to say about FeedRoller RSS Ticker expect…it just works. It is simple and easy to use. I had no problem adding new feeds to the program, and they started scrolling on the top of my screen right away.

The thing that I like about the program is the fact that it does more than just scroll RSS feeds. It can also be used to show Atom and Twitter feeds. If you are following a lot of Twitter profiles, this program can be a quick and easy way to keep up with all of their latest tweets. For example, I tend to follow a lot of game developers, who supply me with games to review. Following their Twitter is a great way to get some great news to cover. That being said, a lot of these developers post several tweets a day. Unless I want to spend my life on twitter, I need something that can bring the tweets to me so I don’t have to keep going back and checking what new tweets are up.

The biggest problem I had with the program is actually my own fault. It is a very distracting program to have running, and that is why I had to stop using it. It’s like this, I only subscribe to feeds that I care about. So usually, if something new is posted, it interests me. If things that “interest” me are always scrolling at the top of my desktop…it makes it hard to get anything done. If you don’t work from home or are not easily distracted, this program is perfect. Me, I know my weakness and had to get rid of it before my productivity went on the rapid decline.

CONCLUSION AND DOWNLOAD LINK

FeedRoller RSS Ticker is a great program that may work too well. It is very distracting, at least for someone like me, but t is nice to have all of your feeds scrolling right where they are easy to see. If you are trying to actually get something done, however, you are going to need to hide it. If you hide it, what’s the point of even having it in the first place? Thus, the program does not work for me, but I can see it being very helpful for others that need a quick way to keep up with their RSS feeds.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 0.64

Supported OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Download size: 450KB

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/46

Is it portable? Yes

FeedRoller RSS Ticker homepage