January 31, 2007 3:15 PM PST
Blerts: pop-up RSS alerts
The Blerts popup window.
(Credit: CNET Networks)ThePort is launching Blerts at Demo 07 today. It's a new RSS application for your desktop. It pops headlines from your RSS feeds onto your desktop, instead of requiring that you go to a RSS page or fire up a standalone app to read your feeds.
The service can be configured to treat feeds differently--you can have some feeds pop up immediate alerts on your desktop, some just display a little icon on the desktop, and others stay quiet no matter what. It's similar to another RSS pop-up app that I like, AlertBear.
The challenge is making it work in conjunction with a more fully-featured reader, like Google Reader, Newsgator, or NetVibes.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
