Problem : Your friend wants to know which are the technology feeds you follow. He also wants to quickly subscribe to those feeds in his feed reader. How do you do it ?
A simple way to share feeds is exporting the corresponding OPML file. However, not every feed reader gives you the option to selectively export OPML files.
Until now, in Google Reader you could selectively export feeds by making a folder public or by exporting its OPML file. However, sometime back Google Reader launched a feature called Feed Bundles that simplified the task of sharing feeds from Reader.
It is very easy to create bundle in feed reader. You can create them and share it with your friends so that they could subscribe and take advantage of the feeds you read.
Here are the steps to create a feed bundle and share it in reader.
In your Reader interface, go to the left hand navigation panel and click on “Browse your stuff”.
Now on a right hand side of the screen you will see “Create a bundle” button. Click on it.
Now a page will appear on the right hand side as shown in screenshot below. Scroll through your subscription folders. You can drag and drop a feed or folder into the space provided. To share your bundle with your friends check the “Add to my share items” box. Click “Save” button.
Important Note: If you check “Add to my shared items” then the bundle will be shared with everyone whose on your Reader sharing list. Hence if you want to privately share the bundle with a friend then it is better to uncheck that option and then save it. Once you are done, you can email that bundle to your friend.
You could also quickly add a folder of feeds to a bundle using the drop down menu beside the folder.
Your bundle is now created. As seen in the screenshot below there are total four options to share your bundle.
1. Email: Click on “Email to your friends” link to immediately email it to your multiple friends. Your friends can preview the bundle and subscribe to it directly in their Google Reader.
2. Create a bundle clip: Click on this link to create a bundle widget. You can add this widget on your blog. Your blog readers can subscribe to all these feeds by clicking on “Subscribe” button given at the bottom of widget.
3. “Add a link” option creates a page with all the feeds in that bundle. You can share this link with anyone. Here is a link of feed bundle I created.
4. OPML file: Right click on the OPML file link and select “save link as” from the right click menu. Save the file as XML file on your computer. You can share this file with your friends.
So, that was how you easily share feeds via bundles in Google Reader.
Related: How To Change/Rename A Folder In Google Reader
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