Library clips

Optimal OPML Browser has now joined the ranks of OPod, and Bitty as being an OPML Reader (not just browsing but also be able to read feed content)…add the KOZOPMLBROWSER to this, even though you can’t submit a URL to view.

To clarify, it is an OPML Browser with the ability to read feeds like an RSS Reader.

Also it will open OPML inclusions without leaving the page, instead it expands OPML inclusions in an outline display.
NOTE: OPML inclusion are items in the OPML URL that are OPML URL’s themselves (OPML items within an OPML).

Check it out in action.

Compare this to OPML Surfer…see how it launches to a new page when you click on an OPML inclusion, instead of just opening as a tree…also notice that it doesn’t read feeds.

Optimal is an improved version of Dan’s earlier tool, OPML Browser (which worked the same as OPML Surfer)…note the URL re-directs to Optimal.

Now if Optimal could be coded to your blog sidebar this would be very interesting, well, it looks like OPML Renderer, which is also created by Dan.

The scene is moving so fast, it was only within the month that we were dreaming up the inevitable OPML Reader. This type of reader will read text, HTML links, feed (and posts), and OPML inclusions, whereas a regular RSS Reader will only list feeds where you can read the content…so an OPML Reader does more.

The difference is that an RSS Reader has a notification system, where you are made visually aware that a feed has new entries, this isn’t so in an OPML Reader. An OPML Reader is just as dynamic, so it will contain the latest posts, but it just won’t tell you which are the new ones.

So, I guess an OPML Reader doesn’t have a subscription mechanism, it’s more a viewer…not sure if it could ever work as an RSS Reader does.

One thing I’d like to see is expanding the title of each feed post, to another level in the tree where you can read the contents of the feed (this way everything is contained in the outline).
In Bitty, when you click on a feed it skips a title index and shows the full-post, whereas in Optimal it only has a title index, so you have to read the post at the native site.

More

Adam Green has fashioned a Reading List for the feeds that have current posts in tech.memeorandum.

So as you can guess the feeds in this Reading List will be changing constantly…this type of Reading List is referred to of late as a Grazing List.

As Adam has illustrated, now with Optimal you can graze the rest of the posts from the feeds that have a winning post at tech.memeorandum.

People shop for feeds by sampling some posts, but how do you know where to go to sample feeds, let them come to you by following the tech.memeorandum grazing list, and also you know they are of some quality as they have featured posts on tech.memeorandum.

Again you don’t have to keep seeking, if you use BlogBridge you can shop for stuff from different shops within your own home every day…or you can just bookmark a URL at Optimal in your browser and click it for your daily graze…totally speaking in metaphor

[via EirePreneur…more]

Alex Barnett is also talking about it.