Microsoft's Windows Live has just improved its RSS feed reading feature and supposedly now lets you import your OPML files. But the biggest news is that a new toolbar is due out this afternoon that incorporates many of the features of Onfolio, a desktop research organizer and RSS reader that Microsoft announced it acquired yesterday. Onfolio is no longer for sale and won't be supported in the future, with the acquired company now focusing all its efforts on improving and supporting the new toolbar only.
It's unclear whether the new toolbar will keep any of Onfolio's desktop RSS functions. We'll have to wait and see this afternoon, when the new toolbar is released for download. It appears you can download it from the Onfolio site. I'm curious to see what functions are delegated to the Web and which ones are left for the desktop application. (By the way, if you purchased the basic or professional versions of Onfolio after Dec. 8, you can request a refund. Purchasers of the academic version are out of luck because a half-dozen or so of its features are not available in the toolbar.)
On Windows Live, RSS reading is very cool. You can click on a feed and go to the original site to the read a story -- or you can hover over a "[more]" link and see much of the feed's content and graphics. You can scroll through a story if it doesn't fit into the pop-up window. This is how Google should have programmed its RSS reader, which, in my mind, sucks. (I do, however, like Google's personalized front page, where I do much of my RSS reading.)
The RSS modules on Windows Live show a continuous stream of graphics for each feed group. If you click on one of the graphics, a full page containing that module's feeds appear, displaying a portion of that feed's post. You can choose to "collapse all" or "expand all" feeds. Unless you're interested in reading each feed's entire post, expanding all feeds is a quick way to browse through a blog's postings. If you want to read the actual post on the blog, you can click on "more."
As for OPML files, I could not find a way to import RSS feeds. I filled out a support ticket, so we'll see how long it takes to get an answer. I suspect I'll discover how to do it by this afternoon, either from information released with the new toolbar or from one of the readers of this blog. :)Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�Linking�Blogs�|�Comments
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