Yahoo have released an intriguing service called “Pipes”. Based on the concept of unix pipes, it allows you to filter and process RSS feed data in a chain - using a very cool web graphical user interface. The result can be spit out in a variety of formats that can then be used in your RSS reader, on your blog, in a Greasemonkey script or even as the building blocks of more complex pipes.

There is still a lot of room for improvement on the tool (the wish list of functionality grows by the second!) but it’s an awesome and inspiring start. The only major complaint from people is the lack of easy-to-understand documentation. Don’t worry though - I’ll present a step-by-step guide to get you going! (more…)