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On the Web, RSS feeds provide the content for newsreaders and podcasts. One of the most active promoters of mobile RSS feeds is John Goodall, co-founder of LiteFeeds. LiteFeeds provides synchronised web and mobile news readers based on the RSS format. If you dont know what RSS or Really Simple Syndication then go to the “subscribe” section of our site. The below picture is this exact article in LiteFeeds web reader!

What kinds of feeds are most popular on LiteFeeds?

Goodall: There are some popular mainstream feeds, but we find that every user has unique feeds that are specific to their interest or industry. This could be a specific blog, web service, social network, or secure feed. This is what sets us apart from carrier content. We are built on the open standard of RSS and this allows users to fully customize their mobile content.

What distinguishes your mobile products from your competitors?

Goodall: We are pioneers in the mobile RSS space. We offer both an advanced Java and BlackBerry reader and basic WAP reader for phones. We also offer a full featured Online RSS reader that synchronizes with the Mobile reader. We have many features that set us apart from competitors such as image and full text viewing, article clipping, blogging bookmarking and emailing, read/unread article tracking, mobile optimized feeds (cached, compressed, fast, less data charges).

How does your product compares to Newsgator or Bloglines (which uses Skweezer for its mobile feeds)?

Goodall: Skweezer tries to intelligently reformat any URL into a mobile friendly website. By utilizing RSS we don’t need to reformat the entire site and RSS has the benefit of having content organized into just the latest headlines/summaries which makes for quicker/easier navigation on mobile… something Skweezer does not do.

As for NewsGator they have a comparable service although we have more advanced features such as blogging, bookmarking and email alerts and they charge a fee for their service while ours is 100% free.

Is there any limit to what content can be downloaded with LiteFeeds?

Goodall: LiteFeeds users can download and read any content that has an RSS feed regardless of the carrier they use. This open model is great for consumers; however, some carriers block our application because they want total control over what users can view. However the WAP version of LiteFeeds should always work since it cannot be blocked.

Are you seeing LiteFeeds being used for serious mobile business?

Goodall: We are seeing it being used as a business intelligence tool by professionals. It allows them to quickly scan their industry specific feeds and stay updated. Doing it on their mobile allows them to take advantage of idle time. Most corporations don’t realize the benefit yet, but this is changing.

Michael M.