Tag: OPML

Any free solution for the demise of Google Reader?

Last week Google announced it will shut down its Reader service. It is a web-based RSS reader. It therefore allows to be kept updated of news from around the net in a central location. I liked the service for 3 reasons (on top of the fact it’s free, 0$, to use):

  1. It’s web-based, accessible from anywhere/everywhere with a simple browser;
  2. It’s text-based, you can quickly scan headlines and use the powerful search function from Google;
  3. It’s backed by an API so you can use it via different apps on different platforms and they all stay synchronised (the web/mobile version of Reader is not as efficient as the web/desktop version; hence the proliferation of apps using Reader as a backbone).

Of course it frustrated a lot of people, from scientists to consultants … to name a few only. People are looking for alternative (you can do a search on Google while the Search service is still working). Feedly is cited very often as the next best alternative. However its nice, graphical interface conflicts with my second reason to like Google Reader: it’s text-based. The Old Reader looks also interesting, it is text-based but no apps on different platforms yet. But both are also proprietary and can be turned off (or changed to a pay-for-use model) at any moment 😦

An interesting solution could be an Evernote RSS reader. Evernote has already a portfolio of application ranging from a note-taking software, screenshots, drawing, food, … They have a synchronisation process in place. Why not a RSS reader then?

Back to the main track … Fortunately – in a way – Google Takeout allows you to retrieve all your data from Reader, along with an OPML file containing all your subscriptions. You can feed this file in another reader and you can go forward. Starred items are also retrieved (but which reader can use them?). And if you are interested The Guardian has an interesting article about the average duration of Google free services (1459 days, see below) and other nice facts. I guess they will keep Search alive 😉

130325-Google_Keep_Guardian

But what can be done for free (as in free speech)? One of the solution is Owncloud (AGPL) and they recently released a RSS reader add-on. Another solution could be pyAggr3g470r, a news aggregator written in Python. And I was wondering why there isn’t just a simple API that would allow any kind of application to connect, update and display RSS feed. Something like the NewsCredNews API but free, simpler to use than Owncloud and with apps/website interface for mobile devices. And a poney with that, please.

Do you have any other solution?

OPML output in catrss

A few days ago, I released the first version of catrss, a tool used to concatenate RSS file(s) to standard output. Today, I added OPML output to this tool. Here it is in version 0.2 (.tar.gz file, 16ko).

OPML is a file format first used in a commercial application. Now it’s widely used for the exchange of links between news aggregators. Because of that, I had to implement it in catrss: it’s a potential format for the output of catrss.

But I’m not happy with this format. It’s nice, it does its job, it’s already available, … ok. Other people already complained about this format (see here e.g.). Beside the fact it’s not standardized (it’s difficult to exactly know what software will correctly parse what you put in your outline tags), I dislike the fact that the official specifications include tags that describe what I consider as the look, feel and behaviour of the content (expansionState, vertScrollState and the window*) and not the content itself. Of course, I’ve read that they are optional. Nevertheless, I don’t think it’s a good design decision to handle things like this and mix look/behaviour and content (not in this case).

I’m sorry for people not in computer science but this is — again — another entry about programming and I understand the title and content are a bit strange for them.