RSS Feed Bundles

Google has unveiled a slick way to create what they call “bundles” of RSS feeds. These are actually just collections of related RSS feeds that you pick. For example, here’s a bundle that I created in a couple of minutes which aggregates all of the sites from the GigaOM Network:

In order to create a bundle, you just have to login to your Google Reader account, click “Browse for stuff” and then click the “Create a bundle” button. You then simply drag and drop the RSS feeds you want to include in this bundle, give it a name and description, and save it. After that you can share the bundle many different ways. You can email it, share the bundle’s URL on a social network or create a “bundle clip,” which is like a widget you can embed on your web site. Here’s an example of this bundle as it would appear as a bundle clip:

Create RSS Feeds of Site Collections with Delicious

The social bookmarking service Delicious offers a quick and easy way to share a collections of web sites, similar to the Google bundle method, except that this collection can contain links that are not RSS feeds. This means you can collect any type of web site in your Delicious collection and share them with individuals or groups (or even make them public for all the world to see.) The cool part about this is the fact that Delicious automatically creates an RSS feed for each and every tag that you create. This means people can subscribe to your tag, and automatically see new bookmarks that you add to that tag whenever you add to the collection. This is a powerful collaboration tool and something that could prove useful for clients and projects. Here’s an example of a new tag for a collection I created called GigaOm_Network, using the actual URLs for each site. I also included Om Malik’s Twitter account.

Firefox Collections of Add-ons
If you’re a Firefox user, then you know how useful add-ons can be in enhancing your browsing experience. Well, you can now share your favorite Firefox add-ons thanks to the Firefox Collector which allows you to create any kind of collection you want.

There are a great range of Firefox Add-on collections in the Editor’s picks. You’ll see a wide variety of collections ranging from the best add-ons for web developers to the best ones for travelers. There’s also a WebWorkerDaily collection available. If you can’t find a collection on something you want, then simply create one yourself. Just add the Firefox Collector add-on and browse the Firefox Add-ons library to find the items you want to assemble and share in your collection.

Share Groups of Firefox Tabs

Simon recently covered the Firefox add-on ClusterTabs, which includes a screencast that demonstrates how easy it is to create a group of tabs that you can share with others.

Create Document Collections With Thinkfree Portfolios

ThinkFree is an online office suite of products, similar to Google Docs. ThinkFree offers a unique feature called Portfolio, which allows you to create bundles with different types of documents. For example, you can create and share a Portfolio for a client or project that involves Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and even PDF files. If this sounds familiar, then you probably remember Microsoft Binder, which did the same thing on the desktop.

Share Collections of Twitter Users
TweepML is a new site that lets you create collections of Twitter users that you can share with others. People can select to pick and choose who to follow on Twitter from your list, or they can elect to follow them all with the click of one button. This is an excellent solution for organizations that want to share a list of all their Twitter users. Here’s an example:

We all create and share lists of our favorite things online these days thanks to services like Last.fm (music), Flickr (photos), YouTube (videos), etc.  It thus seems like a natural progression to use the same collective mindset and technology to share other things such as documents, software and bookmarks. The list of items we can share as collections is limitless.

What tools do you use to create collections of useful things to share online?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user Onatos

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• A 2011 Infrastructure Forecast
• Big Data 2011 Preview

With features like this, Zoho’s office apps might someday entirely replace Microsoft Office in the toolbox of many web workers. But other online word processors take what looks like a complementary approach. For example, recently-announced Live Documents integrates web-based editing and collaboration with Microsoft Office using an “embrace and extend” strategy. And Google Docs, at least for now, serves mainly for real-time collaborative editing of lightweight online documents.

Last week, startup InstaColl announced its preview of Live Documents. Live Documents joins desktop and web applications by wrapping Microsoft Office with a collaboration capability that allows for offline editing of documents and later resynchronization.

Meanwhile, where’s Google? They have an offline capability in Google Gears (which Zoho used to implement Writer’s offline feature) and have used it to give Google Reader offline capabilities. But so far, we haven’t heard any announcement of offline support for Google Docs. Perhaps Google as well sees its online word processor as more a complement to than a replacement of MS Word.

When Zoho released its read-only offline capability for Zoho Writer in August, Google responded to questions about when they might offer disconnected Google Docs with no firm answer, telling AppScout blogger Brian Heater that they would add new features when enough users had requested them.

Related Posts

• What Word Processor or Text Editor Do You Use?
• Don’t Want to Shell Out for MS Office? Get a Free Alternative
• Five Word Processing Gems–Free and Nearly So
• 10 Free Minimalist Word Processors

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• A 2011 Green IT Forecast
• In Q3, E-books and White Spaces Ruled