Attensa Outlook looks like a cousin of Newsgator Outlook edition - the good thing is that Attensa for Microsoft Outlook doesn't cost you a penny and you can even subscrible to RSS feeds from your Firefox browser.Attensa for Outlook works inside Microsoft Outlook and displays your blog subscriptions right into neatly organized Outlook folders. Just like Newsgator Outlook edition, Attensa for Outlook uses cascading style sheets (CSS) to present the news in an email message like format.
The Attensa engine is a separate process than Microsoft Outlook so it continues to download updated RSS news feed even if Microsoft Outlook is closed or offline. Engine takes care of the business logic of downloading subscription files and updating an RSS feed database, greatly reducing the impact on Outlook. Newsgators users would miss this a lot.
Attensa lets you use a toolbar in Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer, to easily add and manage RSS news feeds and subscriptions from Websites and blogs. Users can publish information from emails and news feed articles directly to their blogs or wikis without exiting Outlook and loading their browser. With Attensa, you can publish to multiple blogs using TypePad, Blogger and LiveJournal.
Attensa automatically loads audio Podcast files into iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists. You can also add Del.icio.us tags to articles and feeds using Attensa for Outlook and the Attensa Toolbar for Internet Explorer. When you tag articles with Attensa your bookmark list on Del.icio.us is updated automatically.
To make the switch from Newsgator easier, Attensa for Outlook automatically offers to import your existing RSS feeds from Newsgator or an OPML file. Attensa allows you to subscribe to any news feed format including RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, ATOM, RDF including gzip compressed feeds.
Eric Hayes and Tim Brown, the guys behind Attensa, had previously worked for Extensis the developers of famous "Extensis Mask Pro" and "Extensis Suitcase" products.