Library clips

FeedFeeds allows you to re-syndicate a mini RSS Reader widget on your blog or website…the last one I covered was Badger.

FeedFeeds doesn’t have a expand/collapse feature, but what it does have is tabs so you can make topics of feeds, the content is not a mixed river of news…even though a topic can have multiple feeds, you still scroll down and read content sorted by feed.

Here’s a sample.

Alternately you can go with the feedTV type of look.

Some places of work may block sites like BlogSpot (Blogger) as part of their IT policy, so how to you read these sites now that they are blocked.

Bookmarklets
Bookmarklets are no good as you have to be at the blog HTML page, and this is our problem as any URL with “Blogspot” has been blocked.
Here are some bookmarklets for reference anyway:
Grazr Preview, RSS Preview Blum…I’m sure there are many other bookmarkets out there.
Not sure if these 2 preview feed content: Extract, Feed URL Locator.

RSS Reader
Simple, use an RSS Reader…but this is a committment.

Another way is non-committal feed grazing, see below.

XML version
You can’t read the xml version of the Blogspot blog as it will have “Blogspot” in the URL, but if it has a Feedburner feed then you are in luck.

RSS Grazing
Otherwise you can use an RSS grazing service like 2RSS, just enter the feed of the Blogspot blog and see the latest posts.
Feed Meme’s Simple Ajax Feed Reader (and exposed version) does the same thing, or enter the feed URL into Grazr.

What about finding the feed URL in the first place in order to graze it
It’s not always easy to find the feed for a blog, try something like allinurl:feedblitz xml (see the 5th hit).
Google Blog search doesn’t promote the feed URL.
Technorati doesn’t promote the feed URL of a blog.
Actually didn’t Yahoo! web search always list the XML URL of a web page where available?
Bloglines does infact enable you to search for feeds, and you can even preview the feed contents…they have my native feed and not my Feedburner feed listed

View RSS version of a post permalink
These feed grazing methods above will only help for the latest posts, what about a random post from a year ago, how can you read the RSS version of this post.
eg. in your search results is a post from a year ago, but when you click on it, it is blocked as it has “Blogspot” in the URL.
Even if you feed graze the feed of this blog, it will only show 20 or so latest posts at the most, and the post you want to read is about 300 posts ago.

I don’t know of a way yet, this brings us back to RSS archiving, ie. a permalink for the RSS version of every post.

Solution

Bitty to the rescue, remember that old chestnut.

This service allows you to enter a URL, feed, podcast feed or OPML, and you can read the contents within this mini browser. They even make it easier by providing easy ways to enter OPML’s or feeds eg. if you don’t know your del.icio.us feed, just enter your username in the del.icio.us box provided and Bitty will discover it for you.

Another feature is that you can grab a widget for your blog sidebar already set on the feed, OPML, etc…page of your choice. If visitors want to enter in their own OPML and RSS they can also do that.

The main difference Bitty has over other OPML Readers like Grazr, is that you can actually read a HTML page in this mini browser, and that’s just what has saved the day.

This post, http://3spots.blogspot.com/2006/06/feedmeme-online-public-rss-readers-and.html may be blocked in some workplaces as it has “Blogspot” in the URL.

Well enter that URL in the Bitty Browser where it says “Enter a URL or search term”, then click on “>>”, then click “Open it Squeezed” (skip the ads), and there you have it, you have a work around to read a URL that is blocked.

[ADDED 22/05/07: Phonfier is an even better solution]

[ADDED 5/06/07: Mowser is the best yet]