Tickershock displays news feeds anywhere on your desktop in an animated crawl or billboard

Originally downloaded 10/9/06. I remember trying Tickershock out when it was first released in mid-2005. I was not impressed, because at the time the options for display were very limited and quite obtrusive. It looks like options have expanded, with more control over look and feel… so I thought I’d give it another go. The concept of continuous newsfeeds is one I like, as long as I can control how it works to a large degree.

Update 1/5/08. There’s no doubt Tickershock is cool, and for folks who really love the news-ticker method of information delivery (Pointcast, anyone?), it’s worth a look. I like the fact that it’s so customizable and provides numerous interesting built-in themes and options. But given the multitude of highly effective, free ways to get your news feeds nowadays, I certainly couldn’t justify the standard Mesa-Dynamics software price of $20. Heck, I had been using ClawMenu’s wonderful RSS reader until a few months ago, when I decided I just couldn’t afford the time to stay on top of the web news. I’m hoping that’ll change shortly, but when it does, I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to ClawMenu. (And just so you know, ClawMenu is a very lightweight newsreader… not a dedicated application like NetNewswire or PulpFiction. Still, it’s very handy, looks great, and fits my workflow.)

Version as tested: 1.3.