A reading list is the organised list of all feeds that a person reads using their feed reader. There are two primary file formats for reading lists, XOXO and OPML (see What is XOXO?). Reading lists are popularly used as an import/export format for moving subscriptions between feed readers. If they are made available online they can also be used as dynamic reading lists.
Dynamic reading lists are reading lists that are aggregated by a feed reader. One folder or module is always updated to contain the most current subscriptions from the reading list. This allows users to subscribe to other users’ reading lists to see what other’s are reading, for example. Directory sites like Share Your OPML (which, as the name indicates, is anti-XOXO) also allow users to share their subscriptions en masse.
Feed readers currently supporting the dynamic reading list concept are:
Dynamic reading lists can be previewed or included as a widget in a webpage using Grazr. Grazr currently only supports OPML, but XOXO is on the todo list.
If you know of any other programs that support dynamic reading lists or other interesting uses for reading lists, please leave a comment below.
If you have any suggestions on how this introduction to reading lists could be clarified, please leave a comment below.
4 Responses
Just want to bring your attention to Feed Library from BlogBridge (an example is http://www.blogbridge.com/directory) It has reading lists all over the place – each category and subcategory is a reading list (OPML). Also you can easily create categories that are populated dynamically by referencing OPML URLs elsewhere.
So if you see, this means that multiple instances of Feed Library can be interconnected in really interesting ways, using OPML reading lists as the connective tissue.
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/blogbridge_library.html
Pretty cool 🙂 If only there were XOXO support…
Erm …
What’s with the green and red?
Have you heard about accessibility?
I’m not colourbling and I can’t even read it!!
*sigh* do you know how many times I’ve changed the colours to make it more readable? It’s now a nice darker red that contrasts rather well with the uF-logo-stle green fade. If people are going to complain about every single colourscheme I try, maybe someone should try suggesting something of their own!