What is the Roosster?
The Roosster is a free service that wakes you up to the most interesting information on the web - direct to your desktop via the popular RSS format. Hence the name RooSSter. Get it? Hehe...

How is it different from all the RSS feeds available elsewhere?
The Roosster focusses on making information NOT available via RSS anywhere on the web, available through this wonderful format. The Roosster converts information available on the web in formats other than RSS - like HTML - into RSS for easy reading in a desktop RSS reader. It also allows you to create your own custom feeds based on keywords across ALL gathered feeds. Further, the Roosster also FINDS deals that are otherwise harder to find by scouring the web for the latest deals.

What are the services available?
The Roosster will at some point provide a number of interesting categories of information via RSS. The first set of categories available will be: deals, and news. However, the primary focus of this site for some time to come will be deals, deals and more deals. Over time, other categories of information will also be added.

What is RSS?
This is what XML.com has to say about RSS: RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.

What are good applications to read RSS?
I have tried to find a good RSS reader application for a long time and the best I have found so far is the FeedDemon application. It is not free however. The best free RSS reader application we have found is RSS Bandit. This is the application the we use and find it very user friendly with most of the common features.

Can I get a feed with ALL the latest deals from ALL your sources?
Yes. To get a feed of deals from all the sources, click on the [rss] link next to the right of the name of the category that you want the integrated feed for. The feed for deals is here.

What do I do if I do not want to use the RSS Reader?
All of the offerings on this site are also available to browse and search on the web. Just Click on the browse links next to any feed to browse the results.

Can I search the deals across all the sites?
Yes. Just click on the search tab at the top of the page and you can enter a seach term and the category of information you want to search.

Can I create a custom feed with one of these searches?
Yes. Just click on the search tab at the top of the page and you can enter a seach term and the category of information you want to search. Then click the [rss feed] link at the top of the search results for a RSS feed of the results of the search.

How often is this information updated?
Every hour. Some sources do not update their information every hour - in those cases the information is updated daily or weekly as the case may be.

I have a great deal to add to this list - How do I?
Please use the Roosster Forums to post your own deals or discuss any of the deals on Roosster. You can also post deals at any of the sites that are listed on the deals page.

How do I request a new service to be added?
The Roosster will improve and add sources on an ongoing basis. To request a feed for a new source - use the feed request form and you will be notified when the source is made available.

How did this start?
The Roosster to help me with my personal quest to monitor the web for the hottest deals. It then graduated into a passion to make my RSS desktop software my information hub! I am self-funding this site and making this service available to others. Contributions are most welcome.