Seeking Advice: Best way to achieve RSS/Ajax App like Alertle.com ?

Hey..

I recently tried out a new and pretty innovative RSS reader - alertle.com. It is pretty impressive and I'd really like to put together a drupal site with a similar layout & functionality. Check the site out quickly - registering takes seconds. I was wondering if anyone could lend some advice or thoughts on the best ways / modules to go about putting something like this together? I really don't have much php/ajax experience so I can't exactly just start coding the thing.

Thanks..