Several weeks ago FilterMyRSS added a new feature which many have asked for: keyword exclusion. The new RSS Filter feature means you can exclude feed articles based off keywords.

The most obvious example would be filtering out articles containing profanity.

So this is how it works: Simply put a negative sign in front of your keyword.

Example: -microsoft
*This would filter OUT all articles of a feed with the word “microsoft“

The RSS exclusion is based off string keywords…so…

Example: “-american idol”
*This would filter OUT all articles with the two words “american idol” as the exact string. However, you will still get articles that had “american” in one area and “idol” in another.

I believe this makes FilterMyRSS a much more powerful utility for RSS Filter needs. Enjoy!

If you are trying to filter using a keyword that carries a punctuation you might experience problems with the RSS filter of FilterMyRSS.  So for example, lets say you have an entertainment blog and want to filter celebrities who “can’t sing” then running a feed filter from FilterMyRSS might show incorrect results.

It is best to use the keyword filter “cant sing” for the filtered feed as nearly all permalinks exclude the apostrophe in the permalink structure.

This applies to updating your Google Reader with new feeds replacing the old.

If you are using Google Reader and in the process of updating your subscriptions to include FilterMyRSS with keyword filter, be sure to only keep one window of Google Reader open.

For example, say you have one window open on GReader to copy the original RSS feed to FilterMyRSS for filtering; once the newly generated feed is made [with keyword filter] close the original Google Reader window before re-adding to your Google Reader list.

Why? This insures Google Reader updates properly with the new feed.