Library clips

I’ve posted about Grazr’s latest endeavours like cloning feeds and OPML’s so they can be hosted with your own Grazr URL. My problem were these are just clone OPML’s and are static, when a feed is deleted/added to the original nothing happens to your Grazr version. None-the-less this feature is handy for other reasons, basically a place to host your OPML file or RSS file, ie. creating a hosted URL.

But since then Grazr have added another feature, you can now bookmark feeds and OPML’s, meaning that when the native OPML (that you have bookmarked) changes, it reflects in Grazr…they have always had this with their widget feature, but now you can collect them in your user space as bookmarks.

Upload a file

This is from their last release, upload an OPML file from your PC, and it will create a clone static OPML hosted by Grazr.

Copy from the web

They didn’t have this in their last release, instead of uploading an OPML file from your PC, this is uploading an OPML URL, but just the same it creates a clone static OPML hosted by Grazr.

Add bookmark

This is the big news, with this feature you don’t upload, but rather subscribe (bookmark) a OPML URL, this is a dynamic OPML, which is not hosted by Grazr, you are just bookmarking it.
What Grazr are giving you is a space to bookmark it and create a widget like the 2 methods above, but unlike the 2 methods above Grazr is not hosting the OPML (you are just bookmarking the original OPML).

RSS

The same applies to RSS:

You can UPLOAD an RSS FILE, and Grazr will give you a space for it and host it for you as well.

You can COPY a RSS URL, and Grazr will give you a space for it and host it for you as well.

You can BOOKMARK a RSS URL, and Grazr will give you a space, ie. bookmarking the original URL (you are not asking them to clone it, by hosting it for you like the other 2 methods).

This says to me that since you can clone an RSS feed, that Grazr might also be getting into RSS remixing in the future (filtering and splicing feeds). At the moment you can only enter one feed when you using the Copy from the web or Upload file feature, but soon I imagine you will be able to enter multiple feeds and filter them aka Feed Digest, FeedRinse, Blastfeed, zapTXT, Rasasa, etc…

I don’t think they will get into delivery like SMS, email, or IM, as their main delivery is the Grazr widget (re-syndication).

Anyway, the RSS stuff is just a bonus, my main interest is in OPML as they are out in front with this format.

File List (OPML)

When you look at your My Files section, you can tell which items are RSS or OPML by the icon, and the icon also tells you which items are files (clones) and which are bookmarks, as the bookmarks have also have a link icon.
NOTE: Maybe it could be called My Grazr instead of My Files, since it can contain a mixture of files and bookmarks.

Last of all, your user space (My Files) has it’s own OPML, which I call an OPML Directory or mother OPML or master OPML.

This means each of your items such as RSS feeds or OPML are nodes in a bigger OPML.
It would be good if this mother OPML would also have it’s own space and a hyperlink to create a widget.

In essence Grazr has now released an OPML outlining feature, the only nodes you are allowed to add are RSS or OPML, and this is all hosted in your My Files page and File List (OPML).
NOTE: you cannot add text or HTML links as nodes or organise nodes (items) in folders

Other OPML outliners like OPML Workstation also allow you to add other nodes like, normal text and HTML URL’s…but this is not Grazr’s game, at least not for now.

File host and social bookmarks for feeds

So what are Grazr really getting at, will they be social bookmarks for RSS feeds and OPML’s, and not just bookmarks, but also giving you some hosting space to upload your own stuff or clone feeds and OPML’s?

Feedback

FEEDBACK 1

I’d like to organise my nodes (bookmarks) in a hierachy or in folders…I suppose they are keeping it simple at first.

FEEDBACK 2

I can only create one mother OPML (my user space OPML), I’d like to see multiple OPML channels per user.

A bonus of this is that I could include the OPML of one of my channels as a bookmark (node) in another channel, ie. subscribing to one of my Grazr OPML’s in another of my Grazr OPML’s.

Once you start creating multiple mother OPML’s, then you’d need to tag them to track them all, once again the social bookmark/host service idea is popping up, it’s inevitable this will happen.

FEEDBACK 3

Add an RSS URL or OPML URL to a channel in my user space via a bookmarklet

All of these feedback points above are available in OPML Workstation, so it seems once Grazr also becomes an OPML editor, they will be the hottest thing around.

More

I really like where Grazr is heading, as mentioned before we need a del.icio.us type service to bookmark (and even host) RSS and OPML.
I can imagine tags and all that jazz…I suppose Feed Collectors comes close.

The system data would be made up of three types - feeds, OPMLs and Grazr user OPML’s, this is like 3 different directories.

I like the fact that as you bookmark (and upload files) you are not only collecting stuff for storage, but you can do things with it, like read (graze) contents, create a widget, take your user dynamic OPML into other applications.

If I bookmarked normal HTML URL’s in Grazr, this means I could have an OPML containing every HTML bookmark…del.icio.us should do this. They only have a feed, which only shows the latest bookmarks, not an archive of all of them.

What if I want to keep an eye on a users Grazr OPML, I want to be notified when a user Grazr OPML adds/deletes a new node (bookmark).
How would this work, could you use RSS for this, or is this more like wiki changes?

I guess for the Grazr outline, RSS updates would work for added feeds, but not deleted feeds, (BTW Blogbridge notifies you if someone has added/deleted a feed from their OPML) .

But what about re-arranged feeds…also if Grazr had text outlines, then RSS wouldn’t be able to track edits like spelling mistakes, etc…

I recall Bloglines has a feature called Superfan, which will let you know when a Bloglines user has added a new feed to their Bloglines subscriptions (OPML), as I said the BlogBridge RSS Reader can handle these requirements.

Anyway as far as Reading Lists go, I love the idea of discovery and sharing in a social network and being notified when someone has created a new OPML or made changes to one (like added a new feed) to their existing OPML.

Related

As for keeping updated on re-arranged feeds or a running best of list…another feature would be a SLE type of thing for a top 100 feeds OPML.

I’d like an RSS feed for new feeds in the top 100, but then better would be to get the ordered list every hour by a SLE feed. Reason being is that feeds may drop in and out of the list several times a day.

Also see OPML clones and pinging.

Future

I’m looking forward to Grazr creating various offerings, eg create a lifestream, a topic stream, a biblography and other annotated offerings like Twazr.