diff --git a/modules/aggregator/aggregator.install b/modules/aggregator/aggregator.install
index eecd14fb27f1d66ff08d97160a8f820303a18043..a6d576a7536c9351ac591f7694ec3f3f3e9df9fe 100644
--- a/modules/aggregator/aggregator.install
+++ b/modules/aggregator/aggregator.install
@@ -226,10 +226,9 @@ function aggregator_schema() {
         'description' => 'The {aggregator_feed}.fid to which this item belongs.',
       ),
       'title' => array(
-        'type' => 'varchar',
-        'length' => 255,
+        'type' => 'text',
+        'size' => 'normal',
         'not null' => TRUE,
-        'default' => '',
         'description' => 'Title of the feed item.',
       ),
       'link' => array(
diff --git a/modules/aggregator/tests/aggregator_test_rss091.xml b/modules/aggregator/tests/aggregator_test_rss091.xml
index 1fd5320d3e984b002c40d2d4ebc1c96b144b6906..f39a2732c03459b79be2b51ca4f6b1f4dc117be7 100644
--- a/modules/aggregator/tests/aggregator_test_rss091.xml
+++ b/modules/aggregator/tests/aggregator_test_rss091.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
       <description>First example feed item description.</description>
     </item>
     <item>
-      <title>Second example feed item title</title>
+      <title>Second example feed item title. This title is extremely long so that it exceeds the 255 character limit for titles in feed item storage. In fact it's so long that this sentence isn't long enough so I'm rambling a bit to make it longer, nearly there now. Ah now it's long enough so I'll shut up.</title>
       <link>http://example.com/example-turns-two</link>
       <description>Second example feed item description.</description>
     </item>