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News ClipperNews Clipper is Spinnaker Software's flagship product. News Clipper allows web developers to integrate dynamic information from the internet, such as headlines and stock quotes into their own web pages in their own style. This allows pages to draw more visitors as the information changes hourly. News Clipper natively supports over 200 news sources, and also supports Netscapes RDF format for news headlines, which effectively adds over 200 more information sources.News Clipper's information gathering, filtering, and formatting capabilities can be extended through the addition of "handlers". For example, a web developer can add a new information source to News Clipper by writing a handler for it using the MakeHandler utility. News Clipper is, and will remain, Open Source software. The source code is freely available under the terms of the GNU Public License. Spinnaker Software earns revenue through the sale of a commercial version that includes pre-compiled binaries, documentation, streamlined installation, and technical support. In addition, Spinnaker Software offers services related to News Clipper, such as installation help, customization of the product, custom handler writing, web page development with the product, etc. In the long term, software "extras" will be offered, like a graphical configuration management tool, a graphical front-end to the software, a graphical version of MakeHandler, and a handler browser. For more information, visit the News Clipper home page. News Clipper HistoryFor the first few years of its life, News Clipper was known as Daily Update. Released from the start as Open Source software, Daily Update grew based on the suggestions and (in some cases) the modifications from the users. By the first half of 1999, Daily Update had reached a point where it was usable for more technical people, but sorely lacking for less experienced users.In April of 1999, David Coppit, the author of Daily Update, was contacted by Binary Research International Incorporated about the possibility of marketing and selling the software as a commercial product. This proposal was attractive for a number of reasons. There was a certain amount of "grungy" work that had to be done, which meant that someone had to be paid to do it. Also, making Daily Update a top-notch piece of software required the purchase of resources. After consulting with the core members of the Daily Update community, David Coppit founded Spinnaker Software, Inc., and a marketing and distribution agreement was signed with Binary Research International Incorporated. In June 1999, "News Clipper" was introduced at PCExpo in New York City. |