Dogpile has rolled out a new version of its toolbar that adds an intriguing twist to its well-known web search capabilities, providing a built-in “ticker” that tracks your favorite RSS feeds.

The scrolling ticker portion of the toolbar is fully customizable for the content that’s featured in the scroll as well as the way the material is presented. Users can also choose to turn-off the ticker scroll but can still use the toolbar as an RSS/Atom feed reader.

Headlines scroll at a rate and in a direction that’s easy to change. You can also determine how often the toolbar will check for new syndicated content.

Only syndicated headlines can be viewed in the ticker. To read the full text of associated articles, you’ll need to click on a headline, and a new browse window will open.

Another option to read your syndicated content is by way of a personalized content page that resides on your computer.

A major challenge for many people is finding and learning about news, blog, or web site sources that offer feeds in either RSS or Atom formats. The toolbar’s help pages includes direct links to several well-known directories where the user can find this information.

Also available is a tool that can quickly determine if the page or site that’s currently open in your web browser makes a feed available. Adding content to the toolbar, ticker and reader is as easy as pointing and clicking or typing in a URL.

Web search junkies will be happy to note that the new Dogpile ticker also makes available a real-time feed of “just submitted” Dogpile search queries. This is similar to what’s available from Metacrawler‘s MetaSpy site.

The new release also features what’s become “assumed” toolbar functionality including a pop-up blocker and the option to quickly search several databases.

Finally, a Dogpile spokesperson told me that the company has no plans to add paid advertising to the scrolling ticker.

Search Headlines

NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.