Yahoo! Pipes for Fun and Profit!
Have you used Yahoo! Pipes?
“Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web,” Yahoo! said stoically.
It sounds complex but Pipes is actually a really user friendly way to combine and filter information from all types of sources on the internet. Pipes gives you instant access to the data and functionality provided by sites like Flickr, Google Base, and Yahoo! Local & Search. You can also easily input your own data or RSS feeds. Once you have your source data, you can then use any number of modifiers to filter, combine, and analyze your data. It is astonishing how easy it is to do some really powerful things. The simple drag and drop interface is simple as can be. After watching a brief tutorial video you will be on your way. Welcome to the club, Pipe Builder…er…Plumber!
Confused? Don’t know where to start? No problem. There are tons of Pipes that have already been built that are just waiting for you to run them. Have a browse, there are some incredible Pipes. One of the best uses I have found so far is using a series of different Pipes for a quick and easy way to monitor what is being said about me and my brands across the internet. I use Pipes to monitor “Shoshul”, “Inkblot Robot”, and “Justin Thiele”. The Pipes create an RSS feed that is updated each time one of these terms is mentioned, for example, on Digg, MySpace, Twitter, or in blogs. This is a perfect way to keep your finger on the pulse of your brand all across the internet just by watching a couple of RSS feeds. Very productive and very timely.
Here are some good Pipes to get you started monitoring Social Media:
And one to help you find great deals:
How are you using Pipes for fun and/or profit?
Last 3 posts by Justin Thiele
- Filtrbox for Monitoring Your Brand on the Web - August 18th, 2008
- Name This: The Crowdsourced Naming Agency - August 1st, 2008
- L.i.S.A. 08 (Lessons in Social Advertising) Panel Recap & Notes - May 29th, 2008
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