Feed subscriptions are portable, so it's easy to try different feed readers
What?
It's a snap to try out different feed readers with your real list of subscriptions, and doing so enables you to get a true sense of how they compare.
I recently found out about Rojo, a new web-based feed reader, similar to Bloglines, which I currently use. I'm very happy with Bloglines, but Rojo has some features that caught my eye (e.g. tags) and I want to check it out.
Why?
It's hard to give a new service or application a fair shake if you don't use it as you do your "real" one.
I wouldn't really be able to see how it is to use Rojo without "living" in it as my primary feed reader for a while. The problem is, I've been deterred from doing so by the prospect of having to add and organize my feeds all over again. I've been using Bloglines for a while, and have a pretty long list of feeds that I've spent a lot of time organizing.
How?
Export your subscription list from one feed reader, and import it into another.
Then I remembered some reference to exporting feed subscriptions to an OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) file. OPML is — among other things — a de facto standard language for import and export of feed subscription lists. Recalling that made me realize that checking out other feed readers should be relatively easy, since it seems blog-related service providers understand the fact that holding our data hostage is not the way to win users.
So, to test out this process, I
- signed up for Rojo,
- looked at Bloglines' FAQ on exporting subscriptions and followed the instructions,
- saved the resulting OPML file,
- used Rojo's FAQ on importing subscriptions,
- and voila!, I'm testing Rojo with a copy of my feed subscription list!