Wow! Blog + Newspaper PDF = Tabbloid?

This may seem like a step backward to some of you, but I'm excited by a new tool I discovered tonight thanks to Steve Rubel.  It's a test project from the labs at Hewlett-Packard called "Tabbloid."

What is Tabbloid?

Like most great ideas, Tabbloid is simple:  It creates a customized and printable PDF document full of the latest posts from your favorite blogs.

You use it simply by entering the RSS feed addresses of your favorite blogs.  The tool will then automatically compile the latest updates from those blogs into a nicely formatted and printable PDF document.  Then it emails this personalized magazine to you as frequently as you'd like!

The tool is free, sign up is one page (you don't even have to create an account), and you can pick daily, monthly, or weekly frequencies to receive your personalized blog/magazine/newspaper document delivery. (Somebody is going to have to give this new format a name!  How about "blogpaper" since that's what it is?)

Here's a sample of Tabbloid's automatically-generated RSS feed-driven custom "blogpaper" that you can download.  This PDF only took me about 40 seconds to generate and it will now come to my inbox automatically each week for f.r-ee!

This is the future. Media pundits have been discussing for years the fragmentation of mass media into self-selected channels.  Tabbloid shows the next step: personalized newspapers that only display content from sources you have chosen. 

Why is this cool?

Tabbloid rocks because it can help expand the readership of your blog.  While bloggers hate to admit it, not everyone reads news online.  In fact, there are billions of people on the planet who still don't even know what a blog is. 

But just about everyone knows what a newspaper is, right?  Tabbloid can help bridge the gap between traditional print media and the blogosphere, giving off-line readers an easier way to follow blog content.  This will increase the reach of bloggers, increase the diversity of opinions available to the public, and once again hasten the demise of poor old newspapers.  Why bother with a print newspaper full of unrequested info when you can simply print your own customized version each morning?

Taking the utility of RSS feeds and translating it into the "real world" by offering easy printing for less wired users is a potentially revolutionary step - it could finally prove the value of RSS feeds to late adopters.  After all, isn't a print newspaper or magazine really the analog predecessor of an online blog newsreader anyway?

Tabbloid is fr-e.e - why not check it out today?  http://www.tabbloid.com/  Thanks HP!

Do you think Tabbloid is cool, too?  What uses do you see for this new tool? 

Comments

[frontsoft]

This is a very good idea

[J. Miller]

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Thanks!
J. Miller

[Scott Fox]

Hi J.
Welcome to the blog!
Sorry but I am not familiar with that hosting company. (There are too many to keep track of unfortunately.)
You may want to see my review of Typepad - which I do recommend here:
http://www.websitetoolreviews.com/2008/03/bestsitehosting.html
Great to hear that you enjoyed my book so much. I hope that it helps you find success online.
Scott