Piling on Newsfeeds with OPML

Most visitors to blogs know exactly what an RSS feed can do, but just in case you don’t, it’s a device that allows you to keep up to date with news from a website without having to visit the site using Google Reader, Thunderbird news, Firefox active bookmarks, or any of an almost limited number of news aggregators and online readers, including the likes of Bloglines and Newsgator, and offline programs like Snarfer. But, what about OPML?

Well, OPML, or Outline Processor Markup Language, is an extension to the XML format used by newsfeeds (click image to enlarge), that allows you to meld numerous individual RSS feeds, podcasts, and other applications into a single editable and readable system. Most of the better RSS newsreaders have an OPML open or import (and indeed export) function, so that you could import an OPML file such as a list of feeds someone sends you. For a sample list try my OPML file here. Right-click this link and save the OPML file rather than left clicking it (that will just show the raw XML code). You can then open or import this OPML into your favorite newsreader to quickly add a selection of my current fave-feeds.

To make this file I actually exported some of my subscriptions from my laptop installation of Thunderbird email. I then edited the OPML list using the creatively named but nevertheless free OPML Editor. There’s a whole lot more to OPML than what I discuss here, Google it for more information.

This OPML list is by no means complete, I just checked my subscriptions one just one of my iGoogle pages (click picture to enlarge) and I seem to have accumulated several dozen more. Hopefully, there are a few feeds of interest in the OPML - among them in no particular order: engtech, Yack Yack, Freelance Switch, PureBlogging, Bad Language, Security Fix, Mashable, Wordpress Planet, and Phil Bradley’s Weblog (no relation). Of course, you can add any and all of these one by one to your Google Page.

Keen-eyed readers will notice that several in the list use Feedburner to deliver their feeds, which means for some of those you can find out how many subscribers a feed has.