News Hound has been put to sleep to make way for .
What is News Hound?
News Hound is a new way to get your news – just the news you want – from The Denver Post and the rest of the Internet. It’s an easy-to-use tool to choose the topics you’re interested. So in the tradition of the dog that would fetch your newspaper from the front yard in the mornings, let News Hound fetch your customized news for you!
With the combination of feeds from The Denver Post and the rest of the Web, News Hound is a complete resource, a companion that allows you to be more efficient with your time online. There are thousands of new feeds added to the Internet every day, so you’ll be glad to have the Hound at your side!
How does News Hound work?
News Hound takes advantage of a type of code called RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS works like this: When a website like DenverPost.com or a blog (look below for a definition of “blog”) is updated, it’s flagged with a bit of RSS code, which is written in a language called “XML.” And people who have “readers,” or special software designed to read RSS feeds, use their readers to scan their favorite websites and let them know when there’s something new to check out.
News Hound is such an “reader” – it’s a software program custom-designed to read RSS feeds from The Denver Post as well as from anywhere on the Internet. You choose the topics you’re interested in, and let News Hound “fetch” just that news for you!
Why do I have to register to use News Hound?
We ask for only the absolute minimum amount of information from you so that you can take advantage of News Hound’s features. With the information you provide we can remember your preferences and customized news feeds even if you switch computers. That way, when you log on from home, News Hound won’t show you the stories and feeds you’ve already read at the office, and you can keep up with your feeds from anywhere.
And of course, any information you enter will be subject to our strict Privacy Policy.
How is this different from DenverPost.com’s e-mail news?
If you already subscribe to one or more of our e-mail newsletters, you know how hard it can be to keep up with the news that matters to you, when it’s buried under dozens of spam e-mails. How often have you deleted e-mails out of frustration only to realize later that you deleted an e-mail you wanted?
The feeds that News Hound brings to you are spam-free. You’ll never pick up a virus through Newshound, and you won’t have to sift through junk e-mails again. Think of the feeds provided by News Hound as like a direct telegraph line to the subjects you care about, whether it’s one of our columnists, or Denver Broncos news, or even a subject as specialized as stamp collecting.
There may not be stories every day, but when there’s a story about stamp collecting, it’ll come to you without having to sort through your in-box.
OK, so how do I set up News Hound?
The first time you install and register for News Hound, you’ll see a screen where you’re asked to choose the topics you want from The Denver Post. It says “Welcome to the Denver Post News Hound,” and invites you to set up your feeds.
Click a category (“Business,” “Local News,” etc.) in the left window, and you’ll see a list of choices in the middle window.
You can get a feed that includes “All Local News,” for instance, or you can choose subcategories down to your neighborhood or suburb, from Highlands Ranch to Arvada, Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. Or, you can subscribe to news feeds by subject: school districts, the legislature, growth, environment, and our many columnists by name so you can keep up with their latest articles.
Once you’ve chosen the topics you want from The Denver Post, you’re ready to start using News Hound!
It’s as easy as that. Every half hour, News Hound will sniff out the news for you and alert you whenever you have new articles. Then you can go to the main News Hound screen (which is what you’ll see from now on, now that you’ve chosen your categories – but don’t worry, you can always change your choices!) and see your news.
Click the section buttons at the top of News Hound – Business, Local News, Sports, etc.) and you’ll see the news feeds you’ve chosen within those sections. On the left you’ll see the sources you’ve chosen for your news, and in the middle you’ll see Denver Post headlines and a short description of the article. Click the link if you want to read the full story, or move on to the next story.
Once you’ve chosen your feeds, click on the button for the different sections across the top of your News Hound, and you’ll see a page of headlines and article abstracts, or boiled-down blurbs. If you want to read the whole article, just click the headline and you’ll be able to read the full text on DenverPost.com.
What’s “My Other Feeds”?
News Hound doesn’t limit you to just getting news and information from The Denver Post. There’s an entire universe of RSS feeds out on the Internet, and News Hound is smart enough to romp through cyberspace in search of the news you want. Here’s how:
There are four ways to add feeds from outside of The Denver Post – Browse, Search, Feed Fetcher and Add URL.
Browsing is as simple as looking at a directory listing by category, and drilling down the topic until you find the feeds you’re interested in. We’ll even recommend some feeds for you to choose from, such as news from CNN or the BBC.
Next, go to the Search tab and type in a keyword. It can be as broad as “golf” or as specific as “Tiger Woods.”
Remember, like any search engine, the more specific you can be with your keyword terms, the better search results you’ll get. You can put in “Broncos” but you’ll probably get a lot of feeds about horses and SUVs as well as a lot of feeds about the Denver Broncos football team! Once you get the list of feeds that match your keywords, you can read their descriptions and choose the ones you want.
Our Feed Fetcher is a special tool that will dynamically search the entire Internet of feeds regularly throughout the day, always looking for feeds that match your keywords. Use Feed Fetcher to follow a company, or a topic, or even your own name (go on, “ego-surf” the Web!). It may bring back feeds you’re not interested in – like ones about horses when you’re interested in the Denver Broncos – but it does all the work for you, 24/7. The catch? You can only have two Feed Fetcher searches going on at any time. If you need a different topic, you’ll have to stop one of the searches and start a new one.
And finally, if you go to a Web site that has a logo for “RSS” or “XML,” it’s a site that offers feeds. Click on those logos and copy the urls that you’ll find, and enter them into News Hound’s “Add URL” form.
Can I change my feeds later if I change my mind?
Sure, just click on the “Add/Edit Your Feeds” link above the window on the left that shows you your feeds in each category, and you can change the feeds for Denver Post content. It will take you to the page where you first chose your customized feeds. Click a category under #1, then click the green signs under #2 to add feeds. You can click the red “x” signs on the feeds you already have, if you’ve decided to don’t want those feeds any more. You can also click the “Add/Edit Your Feeds” link on the “My Other Feeds” page anytime to change the feeds you receive from other news sources or blogs.
What if I don’t choose any feeds?
Don’t worry – if you don’t choose any feeds, your News Hound sections will show the default feed for each category: all the Business News in Business, all the Local News in Local, and so on. You can customize this default and delete or add any combinations of feeds you’d like in each category.
What do the numbers mean next to all my feeds?
In each category, the feeds you’ve selected will appear in the window on the left side of News Hound. And next to each feed, you’ll see a number in parentheses. This indicates the number of UNREAD articles are in that feed. You can tell at a glance that there’s new content in a feed. If you click on the feed name, you’ll see the headlines and blurbs for that category. As you delete each post, or click to delete all the posts on a page, the number in the parentheses will go down to zero. Remember, just because you’ve chosen a feed doesn’t mean you’ll always have content that matches that feed.
So you might go days or even weeks without seeing a story about, say, Greeley. But when The Denver Post has a story about Greeley News Hound will sniff it out and bring it right to you.
Reading your feeds
OK, so now News Hound is bringing you all these feeds and you see the list of headlines with short description or the beginnings of articles, and the words “Read More .” What’s next?
If you’re interested in a story from its summary, just click “Read More.” News Hound will open an Internet browser, and you can read the full text of the article on DenverPost.com. Beneath “Read More” you can also see the date and time the article was posted online, followed by an icon to “Delete” the story after you’ve read the summary, and another icon for “Email” so you can send the summary and link to yourself to or anyone else you think might be interested in the story.
You can also remove all the headlines and summaries in a feed, by clicking on “Delete All Posts on This Page” at the top or bottom of the page.
What does “Default Category” mean in my Profile?
If you click on Edit Profile (the pencil icon) on the upper right, you’ll go to the Register page that you filled out when you first installed News Hound. You can change your profile if you change your e-mail, for instance. And, you can change the Default Category you see when you first launch News Hound. You might want to see your Local News feeds first thing most of the time, but maybe during the fall you’d like to keep up more with the Broncos – just change your Default Category to Sports!
What’s with my News Ticker?
News Hound features an ongoing display of headlines from the categories you’ve chosen, which will scroll continuously across the Ticker at the bottom of News Hound. You can choose which feeds you want to include in the Ticker. Just click on the “Edit Ticker” button and it will show you all the feeds you’ve chosen. Just check the boxes for the ones you want featured in the Ticker, or uncheck the box if you’d like to take them out. When you’re done, click the “Update Ticker” link at the bottom and you’re done.
That way, you can be reading news in one category and still keep up with the headlines from other categories that matter to you.
When there’s major breaking news that we think you’ll want to know about, you’ll see it first in the Ticker.
Why are there ads on News Hound?
News Hound is a free tool developed by The Denver Post to enhance your online news experience. We’ve added discreet and unobtrusive opportunities for our advertising partners to sponsor News Hound, so that we can continue to innovate with new products and tools.
What are the Terms of Service?
Terms of Service are like the “rules of the road” on the information superhighway. They explain The Denver Post’s responsibilities as well as your rights as a consumer of our content.
What does the Privacy Policy mean?
Our Privacy Policy quite simply states how we’re committed to protecting the privacy of our customers, and explains how we gather information and how and why that information is shared.
Who’s NewsGator? I thought News Hound is from The Denver Post?
News Hound was created for The Denver Post by NewsGator, a Denver, Colorado company that has been specializing in the exploding world of RSS feeds for two years. They’ve taken the time to organize the zillions of feeds out there into a manageable format, and News Hound takes advantage of that organization.
What are blogs?
“Blog” is short for “Weblog,” or online journals. They’re a running log of thoughts and or commentary that an author (or “blogger”) makes available for reading on a website. Blogging software allows bloggers to update their weblogs whenever they want. People reading the blog can respond to individual entries of the blogger, sometimes creating extended discussions. The DenverPost has bloggers on its Bloghouse, along with links to Colorado-based bloggers.
What is an RSS feed?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” and it’s a format used to syndicate news and other web content. This includes articles from major news organizations such as The Denver Post, The New York Times and Wired, but also covers blogs and other types of content. The feeds that News Hound fetches for you from The Denver Post or other sources are RSS feeds.
What is XML?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format. It’s the language that RSS feeds are created in. So if you see a Web site that has either an “RSS” or “XML” button on its home page, you can add feeds from that site right into News Hound.
Why are the “?” button and this FAQ section called “Yelp?”
Because it’s the News HOUND, silly!
