Random observations:

The keywords are indeed ordered by rank, the first keyword being the most highly ranked. You can deduce this by comparing the keyword movements at the start and end of the list over time: lots of movement at the end of the list. Easy come, easy go.

The list actually reflects what I'm reading, although it doesn't necessarily reflect what I would tell you that I'm interested in, or even more what I actually am interested in. Maybe I read the wrong feeds. Should never have subscribed to that stupid Ning feed...

And while there are some irrelevant stop words ("not", "bad", "much", ...), the keywords in general can serve as a nice measure of content. Lots of 'Web two-point-oh' (argh, stop it!)-related technologies, and even the '2.0' manages in on the list.

Which also makes it a nice measure of the "Zeitgeist": watch e.g. the sudden appearance of Flock, its quick rise, and after some days it's already off the radar again (I decided it's not worth it as long as Firefox on Macs still sucks, so I stopped reading about it).

Even more reason for a web service API to let us access this data.

In other news: we now have OPML export and easier subscriptions per bookmarklet (which will definitely influence my subscription behavior...)

So if you are looking for a feed reader, give SearchFox RSS a try. It's getting better and better.

Update on 2005-10-31: with some new and rather peculiar observations, see "Update on SearchFox's "Topics I Like".

"Topics I like" in Searchfox RSS

2005-10-12
ning, services, 2.0, oktober, irc, feed, safari, acquires, ubuntu, macorama, looking, tim, canvas, tagging, upcoming, experiment, james, martin, identity, digital

2005-10-17
ning, services, oktober, 2.0, irc, feed, tim, safari, acquires, macorama, identity, canvas, tagging, upcoming, experiment, bad, data, martin, digital, patents

2005-10-18
ning, oktober, services, safari, macorama, feed, irc, upcoming, 2.0, acquires, identity, channel, bad, canvas, looking, experiment, scripts, jon, three, patents

2005-10-18, 2.5 hours later
ning, oktober, services, safari, macorama, feed, irc, upcoming, 2.0, acquires, identity, channel, bad, canvas, experiment, looking, not, jon, patents, three

2005-10-20
ning, services, oktober, safari, irc, three, feed, upcoming, macorama, bad, identity, acquires, 2.0, canvas, much, channel, looking, paper, experiment, update

2005-10-20, 1.5 hours later
oktober, macorama, ning, services, feed, safari, irc, three, upcoming, bad, identity, 2.0, acquires, canvas, channel, looking, much, experiment, update, flock

2005-10-21
oktober, ning, macorama, feed, safari, 2.0, irc, three, flock, bad, upcoming, much, paper, identity, sphere, acquires, channel, canvas, looking, experiment

2005-10-22
oktober, ning, macorama, feed, safari, 2.0, irc, much, upcoming, paper, identity, services, flock, sphere, features, acquires, bad, canvas, experiment, three

2005-10-23
oktober, ning, macorama, feed, safari, irc, 2.0, much, upcoming, paper, identity, services, flock, features, acquires, sphere, podcasts, bad, three, experiment

2005-10-24 10:54
oktober, ning, macorama, feed, safari, irc, 2.0, adler, upcoming, paper, much, identity, services, flock, features, acquires, podcasts, sphere, bad, experiment

2005-10-24 15:41
oktober, ning, macorama, safari, irc, 2.0, much, adler, upcoming, feed, paper, identity, services, flock, features, acquires, podcasts, sphere, javascript, bad

2005-10-25
oktober, ning, macorama, adler, 2.0, safari, front, irc, services, upcoming, much, feed, three, paper, bad, identity, features, acquires, quake, podcasts

2005-10-26
oktober, macorama, ning, adler, safari, irc, quake, sphere, 2.0, upcoming, much, feed, paper, acquires, features, three, podcasts, changed, javascript, front

Update: 2005-10-31
oktober, macorama, comment, ning, 10.4.3, three, adler, who, identity, fixed, changed, irc, sphere, quake, javascript, feed, channel, upcoming, topics, much