Library clips

It’s sometimes such a drag being an early adopter because you are ready for features years ahead of when regular users will ask for them…you just have to be patient.

But the day has come, Google Reader has turned into a simple newsmastering service.

Over two years ago I was whining (point 5 in this post) that Google Reader lacked an OPML file for each tag/folder, which it still does, but it has gone one better anyway, well kind of…

I was also whining and still will that the OPML of my subscriptions is a file and not a dynamic URL. Use case is if I import my OPML into a Google CSE, and then add/delete a feed from Google Reader, my Google CSE will not know about it, which is a pity because it means I can’t use Google Reader as a master control for people to use a public search engine across my current Google Reader subscriptions.

OK, the new feature…a while back during the American elections you may remember that Google Reader was showcasing shared item lists based on a curated selection of feeds.

Well now we can do the same with the new bundles feature. That is, grab a selection of feeds and stream the latest posts on a page.

It’s just like our Shared Items page, but now we can select the feeds, and you can make as many of these newsmastering pages as you like, basically an auto-blog based on some source feeds.

Yeah! and each has an OPML file.

Here’s my auto-blog page on mobile culture, access the OPML file of the source feeds, or subscribe to the feed.

If you click the “subscribe” button you will batch subscribe to multiple feeds right into Google Reader, and they will be auto filed in the folder/tag with the name of the bundle page.

If you decide you don’t want the bundle anymore, unfortunately Google Reader doesn’t allow you to unsubscribe all feeds in a folder, so you have to manually unsubscribe from each feed…yikes!

What about subscribing to an OPML?

Now what would truly make this awesome and catch up with what Blogbridge did, in my own words is:

“When you import an OPML file into BlogBridge can you choose it to be a static list or a dynamic list…”

“Basically a reading list means you can subscribe to the URL of an OPML file, but instead of importing all the feeds in one batch, they kind of virtually exist in your RSS reader…if a feed is added or deleted to the OPML file, then this will reflect in your RSS reader…dynamic!”

What I’m saying here, is that in addition to batch subscribing to multiple feeds one go, I would also like the option to not subscribe to the feeds at all, but instead subscribe to the OPML URL.

Just say you subscribe to the actual OPML URL of my bundle above (you virtually/remote subscribe), and then I remove a few feeds and add some new ones. Then this will reflect in your remote subscription of my OPML bundle. I hold the master, and whatever I do in it, will reflect in whoever has subscribed to it.

As I said this would be good as an option, to import a static or dynamic OPML…here’s a post I made on this over 3 years ago, Dynamic newsmastering with OPML.

I guess if this was the case, then in your “manage subscriptions” page you could have a section for OPML’s you are remotely subscribed to.

So what’s next?

It needs:

• an OPML exchange - a place to swap bundles
• a newsmaster exchange - same as above, a place to find Shared Item blogs
• a search box
• tag cloud
• curating, like mysyndicaat

This last one is especially interesting, as it’s not only a topic auto-blog, but you could have the option to remove posts before they appear in your bundle (kind of like moderating), and also adding in posts that come from other sources (kind of like what we do with our public tag/folder shared pages).

And even do this by setting up keywords to filter in and out, the latest tool is MoreOver, and the most common is Dapper and Feed Informer…and of course MySyndicaat.

You know what’s coming next, and that’s to add a group feature where members could:

• comment on items
• write their own posts

Is this sounding like a Friendfeed Room!

Related features from Google Reader:

Google Reader is your new watercooler
Meeting friends of friends

[ADDED 24/05/09: Of course now I can put a bundle OPML into Google CSE, and when I update that OPML (add/remove feeds), my Google CSE will magically be updated]

Grazr is a place where you can splice/merge feeds into one stream, or even keep a whole bunch of feeds together and read them by source, which ever way, it’s basically a mini-RSS Reader widget. You can make as many of these as you like and they host it all.

If you merge feeds into the one stream, others can subscribe to this RSS feed.
If you have a bunch of feeds by source, others can subscribe to this OPML feed.

NOTE: Feeds are Grazr’s main deal, but you can also add other type of nodes other than feeds, like an OPML, plain text, links…

Now they have gone a step further and enable you to filter a Grazr by keyword (title, author, body), by date, and by media type. This isn’t filtering each feed you put into a Grazr, it’s filtering the overall Grazr.

All your Grazr’s are hosted in the “Files” tab, here you can re-work your files, etc…
But they are also hosted in a blog view, so each Grazr you make becomes a blog post.

Here’s my Grazr blog, how cool is that.

Each of my Grazr’s is a blog post, and you can subscribe to the feed or OPML of each post.
My Grazr blog also has an overall OPML and RSS feed…hmmm, I could put my Grazr blog feed into FriendFeed.

From what I see the “file” and “blog” views are the same content in different views, it would probably be better if you had the option to choose which files to go into your blog view.

Imagine this for Flickr, etc…sure you have all your Flickr photos in a stream, but this is like your back-end. Imagine each time you add a Flickr photo, you had the option to add it to your Flickr blog, that way your Flickr blog showcases your best stuff. People would rather subscribe to your quality Flickr blog, instead of your main stream…plus a blog is a place to hangout.

If you ever used the now closed Share Your OPML (SYO), which I have posted on a lot in the past, we now have a new service called, Toluu, where we can upload our OPML and compare feeds with others, in order to discover people and feeds.

Other ways for feed recommendation are usually built into the RSS Reader eg. Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. A really good one is FeedEachOther, where, just like Toluu, you visit peoples profiles to check out their feeds, you can also be recommended feeds…others are

Toluu is still in private beta, so I’m sure there’s more to come and most of my feedback will probably be on their to-do list.

I wonder if they are going to be a full social network with private messages and a comment wall.

A Toluu type service for podcasts would be a neat idea as well.

Upload your OPML

Only lets you upload an OPML file not an OPML URL.

You can also upload single feeds, or homepages (and it will find the feed)

It doesn’t matter in this instance, but I wish Google Reader had my OPML in a URL instead of just a file I have to download to my PC then upload to a service like Toluu. Actually I wish I could select tag labels and even feeds to make an OPML on-the-fly.
If my OPML lived at a URL, and Toluu subscribed to this URL, then whatever happens at this URL like deleting/adding feeds, would auto-magically reflect at Toluu.

Toluu has a bookmarklet to let you add feeds later on, and it’s integrated with your RSS Reader…after it adds the feed to Toluu, it then proceeds to your RSS Reader so you can add the feed there, very nifty. This doesn’t apply when deleting a feed from Toluu or Google Reader.

Activity

When you launch a new window toToluu to view your profile, the first page it shows is an activity stream, of you and your contacts…a Facebook News feed type thing

- I got an email telling me that someone added me as a friend (I think this also appears in the activity page)
- I got another email telling me this person who added me as a friend added a new feed to their profile (I think this also appears in the activity page)
- you can also get an email when someone recommends a feed (I think this also appears in the activity page)
- you can turn of these email updates in your account settings, as hopefully the activity page can have all this info
- from my profile page there is no button to go to this activity page

My profile

My feeds - your OPML
Favourite feeds - mark your favourite feeds into a list (they also appear as bold in your main list)
Contacts - you can add friends
Fantastic feeds - popular feeds according to the community

Feed profile

When you click on a feed you can add it to your profile, and also add it to your favourites, and also recommend (select friends and submit)
You can read the latest summaries of the feed as well.

Doesn’t show who subscribes to a feed (this was the best part of SYO), so I’m not sure how I’m meant to discover people
…I can’t find a general people directory either.

I can’t export my OPML as a URL, I’d like Toluu to host my OPML.

Friend Profiles

When I visit a profile I notice that I may have some feeds in common with others, but they are not listed in the “You both read…” list, maybe it’s because some blogs have multiple feeds and we both have a different feed for the same blog.

I can’t export a friends OPML, either as a file or a URL.

When I visit a profile it tells me feeds we have in common (mutual feeds), and unique feeds
- along the top of a profile these are called “Shared”, “Unique”, and this calculates our relationship as a %, called “Match”.

In the body of the profile we see “Feeds you might like…”
- why don’t they just use the term “Unique feeds”, and why would I like these feeds anyway, they are just feeds we don’t have in common.

Next we have “Recently added feeds”.

Next is “You both read…”
- this is the same as “Shared”, again terminology is not consistent, I think “Feeds in common” or “Mutual feeds” is a better label anyway, as I’m not really sharing.

Lastly, “Favourite feeds”…it’s a pity this doesn’t have an OPML either.

Matches

I mentioned before when you visit a profile you can see how close you match, well there is a feature called “Matches“, where it will rank people in the system that have matches with you (obviously ranked with the high matches on top).

Problem I had is that my top match was 96%, this person only has 5 feeds, and we have 3 in common…this top match was not really useful to me. Not sure how this will change once this system scales with lots of users.

Visit me on Toluu here, johnt.

[ADDED 3/04/08: I also noticed that the RSS URL of each feed is not promoted on Toluu, I want to be able to copy-shortcut and whack a feed in my RSS Reader…just found out that now you can to subscribe to a feed in your RSS Reader in one-click…and there is 2 feeds for your activity stream, one for you, and the other for you and your friends]

Related

Feedshow sharing OPML’s
Share Your OPML : social attention
OPML Factory
Dynamic Newsmastering with OPML

I’ve been using Ziki, the pioneering lifestream social network since it’s inception, since then a plethora of lifestream services have come at us.

Ziki have a great team and keep the features coming, so I’m sticking with them…here is a quick review and some new features.

Besides adding a lifestream and being able to search it (even limit by feed type), you can also add friends (favourites) to your network, this way you can search your network content as well (social filter).

If your lifesteam content is already tagged eg. blog posts, bookmarks, etc…then you can also find stuff by tag…that’s a latest stream, search and by tag, pretty good for findability.

When you add a friend you can also tag them so you have an expert locator tag cloud according to you.

And of course you can tag yourself.

Another thing you can do is add external feeds by adding a Reading List.

At this moment I’m not sure if you search your Reading List when you are searching your network…actually you can.

People can subscribe to your lifestream feed, or lifestream OPML, there is even email subscription.

Other Ziki users can send you a private message…only thing lacking is a comment wall.

They have a blog feature, where you can throw in posts into your lifestream.

Another cool feature is similar to the Facebook News Feed, I call this type of thing an activitystream…ie. you can see what your Ziki friends have been doing.

You can access the sidebar and throw in some contact links and links in general, and they have just announced widgets.

Your sidebar also has your Technorati, Feedburner and page view stats

There’s lots more features at Ziki, there are also Ziki groups and Ziki’s for companies.

Ziki is basically a blog within a social network, only instead of a blog, it’s your lifestream…reason I say a blog, is because you can put widgets and links on the sidebar, search, browse your content by tags.

The social networking features, searching your network, adding your Reading List, blogging posts, and expert tags make this a hot site.

All that’s missing is a calendar archive and it will look more like a blog…plus a comment wall as mentioned.

This reminds me of what I was posting about yesterday, a blog social network where your blog doesn’t have to be inhouse, only this is a lifestream social network.

More
Mobile version
Search from your browser
Offline business cards
Monetise content
Plugins to see your Ziki profile on your blog
Sponsored listings
OpenID

OPML version

I thought I’d make a list of 20 blogs that have captured my attention of late, some old, and some new to me…these are a mixture of web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and KM blogs.

NOTE: these are not my official Top 20 blogs, they are moreso what I’m really liking at the moment…some of my favourite blogs that have been quiet lately are not included here.
There are also lots of other blogs I have found lately with some great posts, but have not made the list due to lack in consistency of quality posts according to what I like to pay attention to…

Here’s 20 blogs in no particular order:

Knowledge Jolt with Jack
Read Write Web
Collaborative Thinking
Elsua
Portals and KM
The Fast Forward Blog
Trends in Living Networks
Cognitive edge
Anecdote
Anne Truitt Zelenka
/Message
Headshift
Andrew McAfee
Web Worker Daily
Adventures in Knowledge
ChiefTech
Brad Hinton
Green Chameleon
Rex’s Thought Spot
GridLock

Maybe the people on this list, or others could make a similar list of blogs they are currently enjoying…I tag you so.

What the heck, no reading list, no matter how on-the-fly is unworthy of grazing.

Maybe others can make a Grazr OPML too, and I can list all these OPML’s as “includes” in a Grazr OPML (ie. a root OPML that has OPML’s in it)…a social organic list of feeds.