RSS Feeds, Blogs, and Podcasts

1
RSS Feeds, Blogs, and Podcasts

• Mark Branom, IT Services
• Tech Briefing
• http//techbriefing.stanford.edu/
• June 8, 2007

2
Using RSS

• RSS in plain english
• http//www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
• Some Online RSS readers
• www.google.com/reader
• www.bloglines.com
• www.newsgator.com
• Some Offline RSS readers
• www.getfirefox.com
• www.getthunderbird.com
• www.feedreader.com
• www.rssreader.com

3
Creating RSS Feeds

• lt?xml version"1.0"?gt
• ltrss version"2.0"gt
• ltchannelgt
• lttitlegtTitle of Feed Goes Herelt/titlegt
• ltdescriptiongtDescription of Feed Goes
  Herelt/descriptiongt
• ltlinkgtLink to the Feed Goes Herelt/linkgt
• ltitemgt
• lttitlegtTitle of Item 1 Goes Herelt/titlegt
• ltdescriptiongtDescription of Item 1 Goes
  Herelt/descriptiongt
• ltlinkgtLink to Item 1 Goes Herelt/linkgt
• lt/itemgt
• ltitemgt
• lttitlegtTitle of Item 2 Goes Herelt/titlegt
• ltdescriptiongtDescription of Item 2 Goes
  Herelt/descriptiongt
• ltlinkgtLink to Item 2 Goes Herelt/linkgt
• lt/itemgt
• lt/channelgt

4
Creating an Atom Feed

• lt?xml version"1.0"?gt
• ltfeed xmlns"http//www.w3.org/2005/Atom"gt
• lttitlegtTitle of Feed Goes Herelt/titlegt
• ltsubtitlegtSubTitle of Feed Goes Herelt/subtitlegt
• ltlink href"http//LinkToTheFeedGoesHere"/gt
• ltupdatedgtToday's Datelt/updatedgt
• ltauthorgt
• ltnamegtAuthor's Full Namelt/namegt
• ltemailgtAuthor's Emaillt/emailgt
• lt/authorgt
• ltidgtIdentifying information For the Feed Goes
  Herelt/idgt
• ltentrygt
• lttitlegtItem 1 Title Goes Herelt/titlegt
• ltlink href"http//Item1LinkGoesHere"/gt
• ltidgtItem 1's ID Goes Herelt/idgt
• ltupdatedgtItem 1's Updated Date Goes
  Herelt/updatedgt
• ltsummarygtSummary Text Goes Herelt/summarygt
• lt/entrygt

5
Some RSS Examples

• CNNs Top Storieshttp//rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_tops
  tories.rss
• NY Timeshttp//nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/
  HomePage.xml
• Stanford Eventshttp//events.stanford.edu/xml/rs
  s.xml
• Stanford Dailyhttp//daily.stanford.edu/xml/rss2

6
Submitting RSS Feeds

• Doing it yourself

Yahoo MSN Search Fyber Search Bulk Feeds Truth Laid Bear
Moreover Blog Street Memigo Feeds Farm Blogarama
News Knowledge Blog Wise News Trove Every Feed Blog SE 
Syndic8 Boing Boing RSS Clipping Fastbuzz Eatonweb
Newsmob 2RSS Feedster Search4RSS Anse
Sourceforge Blog Digger Day Pop Feed-Directory Sarthak Blog
Bloggernity Bloogz Technorati News Is Free Rocket Info
Genecast Easy RSS Postami Topix Headline Spot
Blogdex Feed Directory Pub Sub Blog Tree Findory
Blog Catalog Step Newz WeBlogALot News Goblin News Feeds
Feedplex Popdex  Newzfire Read A Blog Blog Pulse 
Press Radar Rub Hub Feed 24 FeedsForAll  Blog Map 
Weblogs Feed Burner Blo.gs BlogRolling Technorati
NewsGator Pingomatic RSS Network Plazoo Feedzie
Feed Cat Feed Miner Ice Rocket Sphere Moz Dex
Uncle Feed Pluck RSS Locator News Net Plus Focus Look
Blog Bunch Blogtastic Explore Blogs Feed Pub Feeds2Read
RSS Directory House Of Blogs RSS Mad Blog Resource Feed Burner
All Feeds Content Desk Feed See Blog Watch 4GuysFromRolla
Gnoos Octora RSSMicro Feedooyoo Golden Feed
RSS-Feeds-Sub Readafeed Feedage Rorseek RSS Junky
Feed Fury News on Feeds      
7
Submitting RSS Feeds

• Using a service
• http//www.submitrssfeed.com/
• http//www.feedsubmitter.com/
• http//www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html
• http//allrss.com/rsssubmission.html

8
Linking Your Web Page to Your RSS Feed

• Option 1 with a regular link, usually using the
  orange RSS icon
• lta href"linktomyrssfeed.xml"gtltimg
  src"rss.gif" alt"RSS" /gtlt/agt
• Option 2 by linking your web page using the
  ltlinkgt tag (in the ltheadgt of your document)
• ltheadgt
• ltlink rel"alternate" type"application/rssxml
  " title"Title for Your Feed"
  href"linktomyrssfeed.xml" /gt

9
Resources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)
• www.rss-specifications.com/creating-rss-feeds.htm
• searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page2175271