Bloglines touts itself as a “FREE online service for subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install …… (and it) shields you from the confusion of news feed standards — RSS, Atom, and others.â€
For years, I’ve used their services to assemble aggregated online information and news from various online sources; primarily blogs related to politics, electronic music and web or graphic design. Bloglines has saved me countless hours digging through innumerable websites for information related to those things that most interest me. Though I know that I am somewhat of an anomaly amongst my friends and peers, by consuming mass amounts of information and news on a daily basis, the value of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS cannot be denied. Or according to Steve Gillmor over at TechCrunch, was an indispensable tool.
Unfortunately the Bloglines service will officially close on November 15, 2010(*updated*). And via the Ask.com blog, their reasoning boils down to the fact that they want to shift their focus onto other more lucrative web strategies. Honestly, I am more inclined to believe Steve Gillmor and say that Social Media, particular Twitter.com and Facebook.com, has significantly diminished the importance of RSS, along with many online discussion forums. With the amount of user and business driven online media clamoring for the attention of the almighty web consumer, it’s practically impossible to maintain loyalty towards any particular online information resource. That is, unless you’re the almighty Twitter or Facebook.
Twitter users who are knowledgeable about marketing and the web recognize that its primary purpose is to drive Twitter users to their respective 3rd party websites where they can provide you with a quality online experience filled with helpful and pertinent information. It has gotten to the point that even though I still receive an unfathomable amount of email; mostly email from various RSS feeds, I have begun to substitute these RSS feeds for Twitter because most of those website RSS feeds I’m subscribed to are also on Twitter.
Anyway, I’m losing focus here and need to get back on track. You clicked on this blog bc you want to know how to transfer your RSS feeds.
Because the Bloglines service is closing next week I want to make it as easy as possible to transport your feeds to another RSS aggregator (Google Reader specifically). Below are some simple instructions explaining how to export your RSS subscriptions from Bloglines and import your RSS subscription feeds into Google Reader.
First you must export your RSS subscriptions into an OPML file. Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) is the typical format that RSS aggregators use to import and export subscription feed lists.
Click on the Feeds tab on the front page after you’ve signed into Bloglines.
Scroll past your feeds to the bottom of the pane and click on Export Subscriptions.
Save the OPML file to your desktop.
Now is the time to import your OPML file into Google.
Login to Google Reader.
Click Manage Subscriptions at the bottom of the left hand pane.
Click the Import/Export tab button and select Browse.
Browse for your OPML file, click Open and click Upload.
You will see the following displayed until it is done:
“Your subscriptions are being imported…â€
All your Bloglines RSS feed subscriptions are now imported into Google.
Click the Subscriptions tab to see your imported RSS feeds.
Happy reading and ask any questions in the comments below.
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