Kase just posted about using NewsGator and the Search Folder feature of Outlook 2003. I want to expand on that tip.
I use a Search Folder to display all of my unread news items. I can quickly scan the new items and use the ‘QuickFlag’ feature to mark the items that are of interest. Then I use the ‘Mark All as Read’ command to clear everything from that Search Folder.
I also have another Search Folder that shows all NewsGator posts that are marked with a follow-up flag. I can go to this folder whenever I have time to read those news items. This system works very well and I can scan through the 300+ new posts I get a day in about 10 minutes in the morning and read the interesting ones throughout the day. Just clear the flag and the item is removed from my ‘Follow-Up Feeds’ folder (but not deleted from it’s true folder). This way, all of the items are still in my Exchange folder, so I can find a post later if I need to (actually, Goggle is often quicker than searching my Exchange folder, maybe Longhorn/Yukon will change this).
In addition, if I am about to take a trip on an airplane, I will quickly go through the Follow-Up Feeds folder and click on all of the links in any posts that only show a web link. When I am in the air, the offline feature of IE will let me read those web pages from the cache.