Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Tag-cloud my OPML

Both tagging and RSS aim to help us cope with the information overload.

Tagging means that we no longer have to decide for each and every bookmark in which folder it should be filed.

RSS means that we don't have to go our favorite information source to check what's new; instead the information is aggregated and delivered as a notification to us.

Unfortunately, most RSS readers file the RSS feeds in... guess what. Yup, folders :)

Back to square one, only now instead of having to file hundreds of bookmarks, we're filing hundreds of RSS feeds.

Can we please have tagging in OPML? I'd really like to be able to specify the tags for the feed I am subscribing to, and have the RSS reader allow me to navigate my OPML using a tag cloud.

Mashing up the OPML tag cloud and the RSS items tags, together with an indication of the number of new posts, into a single visual display, would be even more powerful, as it'd allow me to quickly identify the hot topics in the feeds I am subscribed to.

BTW, RSS supports tagging directly (through the category element), but it doesn't seem to be widely supported.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a very good idea to have tagging in OPML. But as Winer is a hierarchy freak, me doubts that he will go along. Incidentally if you like tagging and folksonomy, you will love my site :)

Composing said...

I'm looking for this too. I already manage my blogroll with a script which allows links to be tagged. And if OPML allowed tagging, I'd be able to both import and export using this format.

I don't see any reason you couldn't have a "tags" attribute in an "outline" tag (except for the confusion of the name "tag" between what tagsonomists and XML means by the term). OPML seems to allow for any number of attributes in the outline tag.

Although, of course, ideally, we're talking about a potential list of different tags, so something that represents that list structure within the XML would be nice. But that would have to change the OPML spec. by giving "outline" some sort of "tags" sub-tags.

May be better to use a comma separated list within one attribute.

The main question I have is how I can edit extra attributes in the OPML editor. Don't seem to be able to at the moment.