Monday 29 April 2013

Farewell Google Reader, Hello Net Vibes Reader

So Google Reader is expiring on the 1st of July and I thought that I should make an effort to replace it before it just disappears into the ether. After much consideration (a quick 'Google' about feed readers, and a squint at Phil Bradley's blog)... I decided to export my rss subscriptions from Google Reader to my Netvibes account (much neglected though it be). Having been sadly excited about the ability of Google Takeaway to 'liberate' my Google data, I was additionally strangely motivated by this when I realised it included my reader subscriptions in an .xml file that I could export, unzip and import all relatively seamlessly... I really like the option in Net Vibes to have a widget or a reader view. The widgets make it easy to scan quickly the last few feeds from a source. I also inported the file into Outlook 2007, just because I could.

Net vibes: Here's how I did it: 


  1. So I logged into my Google account
  2. Went to Google takeaway
  3. Clicked on create archive
  4. selected e-mail when complete
  5. Waited a few minutes
  6. Downloaded the archive to my local pc
  7. Used filzip to open the .zip file. and extracted the archive
  8. Located the reader folder and the subscriptions.xml file within. 
  9. Went to Netvibes and logged into my account
  10. Changed to reader view (top menu option)
  11. Clicked on add content (big green button on the top left-hand corner)
  12. Under add feed, and it's search box, I selected the OPML option to IMPORT
  13. I 'browsed' to my 'subscriptios.xml' file and imported it. 

Job done.

Just to be sure to be sure I then backup up my NetVibes feeds...
(Select dashboards from the top menu, click on manage, under the dashboards left-hand navigation item, I selected backup feeds, and then export (ie to my pc))

The whole process took about 5 minutes.

MS Outlook 2007: How I did it:

Because I had already created my archive above I only needed to import the subscriptions.xml file into my rss feeds folder in outlook. 

  1. Open outlook 
  2. Right click on the RSS feeds folder
  3. Select the option, Import an OPML file
  4. Click browse
  5. Select your subscription.xml file 
  6. You will see a list of your feeds, select the individual ones you want, or select all. (I selected all) 
  7. Click Next
  8. The select finish
  9. Your done. 
Just remember to check your rss feeds folder for content!!! I know I'll need to add a  calendar reminder for net vibes.... 


Wednesday 24 April 2013

Return

I just returned today from a year away from my desk... to sum up the difference in the year Brian Lucey's blog about Academic Libraries and the non replacement of staff seems very relevant...
http://brianmlucey.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/downgrading-irish-university-libraries/ 

Google takeaway

Going through options for all my bits and pieces on Google I came across Google Take Out / Take Away. https://www.google.com/takeout/. So I guess I'll have to remember to to download my archive regularly from now on... possibly something that I should use Google calendar for... :)

Download an archive of your data from:

+1s
Blogger
Buzz
Drive
Google+ Stream
Pages
Picasa Web Albums
Profile
Reader
YouTube