Telegraph launches RSS-reading site for novices

I confess, I wasn’t expecting this: the Daily Telegraph has just unveiled its own RSS-reading website, an extension of the existing My Telegraph blogging platform. Shane writes:

First of all we’ve chosen the feeds for our readers. Purists will argue that this goes against the spirit of RSS, which is about choosing whatever you want. However, while the first half of My Telegraph, community, was about bringing blogs to people who had never tried them before, so the second half, personalisation, is about bringing news feeds to novices.

By limiting choice, we’ve taken most of the hard work out of setting up an RSS reader. My Telegraph members can choose from more than 100 feeds in eight categories and the site will automatically remember their preferences for the next visit.

The next release of the site will add a customisable category, with fifteen empty slots for any feed you like. We’re holding it back to let people get used to the feed reading concept first.

Not sure if/when I’ll get time to play with this – besides, I’m definitely a purist on this one. But I tell you what: selling solutions based on RSS to large corporate clients just got an awful lot easier.