How to add an RSS feed to a web page

Have you ever thought about the idea of putting a valid RSS feed to you web page??? Or even create it on your fresh web site (by the way, have you created it or are you waiting for a miracle?=)

My today's post will be devoted to the topic of RSS creation.

You know, it isn't so hard to add an RSS feed to your web page. But why do one need to do that? It's simple: RSS enabled browsers will then see the link. It will allow readers to subscribe automatically. There is one more option I want to mention: search engines will see the feed when it's linked in the HTML. 

1. Link to Your RSS with a Standard Link
2. Add Your Feed to the HTML

So now I suggest you to acquaint yourselves with these 2 options. 

The easiest way to link to one's RSS file is with a standard HTML link. The simplest link can be just a text link like:

<a href="http://webdesign.about.com/library/z_whats_new.rss">Subscribe to What's New</a> (valid for About.com site) and you'll receive a link, namely "Subscribe to What's New". 

If you want to make your link look more pleasant, you can use a feed icon for that. Where one can get them??? You can see and download lots of feed icons from FeedIcons.com. Have a look at what we receive in this case:

<a href="http://webdesign.about.com/library/z_whats_new.rss"><img src="http://0.tqn.com/f/stay/a.gif" alt="Subscribe to What's New"></a> (valid for About.com site)

You can put these links anywhere on your site that you want to suggest people subscribe to your feed. Hope you'll try this method and get good results. 

Did you know that many modern browsers have a way to detect RSS feeds giving their readers an opportunity to subscribe to them. But there's a little BUT here: they can only detect the feeds if one "tells" them they are somewhere on the web page or somewhere else. You do this with the link tag in the head of the HTML like in the following example: 

<link href="http://webdesign.about.com/library/z_whats_new.rss" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="What's New on About.com Web Design / HTML" /> (valid for About.com site)

And only then the web browser reveals the feed. It can also provide a link to the RSS feed. For example, in Firefox you'll see a link to the RSS in the URL box.

That's all for today. Hope this info has somehow helped you or it WILL some time, cause I won't delete my blog=)

10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With RSS (part 2)

Hello everyone!
Do you have any ideas of what is my tonight's post devoted to? Yes, you are right It is the second part of that list I posted several days ago. So let's start (CONTINUE better to say) diving into RSS!


6. Any tag in the social bookmarking site called Delicious has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. 

The question now is: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT DELICIOUS I AM TALKING TO NOW??? I haven't heard about it until I have written this #6 advantage, you know. The blogging activity broadens my horizons=) So, in two words, it is a manager that allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others (c). It's really so convenient!I will definitely register there!


7. Fans of Digg (one more user-driven social bookmarking website, don't be afraid of them))) will appreciate that any user, tag, or featured page (such as the homepage) can be subscribed to via an RSS tag. Buy the way, are you a Digg fan??? I'm not. Not yet=) 

8. One quite popular site for those who are interested in cooking is the Food Network that has an RSS feed that delivers the very best recipes to the RSS user. 

9. Looking for a job??? Perhaps you do. Cause we are 4th year students and it's high time for us to think over this problem. There is one website aimed to help all the job searchers. It is Monster. 

Unfortunately, there's no Ukraine in that list above((((( We'll try not to cry=)
But still, the user of it can craft their own RSS feeds or use one of their own preprogrammed RSS feeds instead (c).


10. A lot of HYPERpopular and HYPERimportant sites have their own RSS feeds. One example - the White House's one. One will regularly get updates on White House news, presidential speeches etc. 


Its high time to make some conclusions, cause:
a) I am deadly tired and want to go t bed as quick as it is possible=)
and
b) I have no idea what else to write=)


The RSS technology is awesome! And I don't just say that cause this is my topic, nooo. I have no idea how the world of active Internet users would look like without this practical invention. I know I wrote a   huge amount of info, but be sure I tried to explain everything to you as simple as it is possible. 

10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With RSS (part 1)

Or did you? 
Nevertheless, it won't stop me from writing this post=)
So my curerent suggestion will be to make a cup of hot tea with lemon (vitamins have never been unnecessary for human beings in the early spring period) and enjoy reading=)
So what are all those 10 ways to use RSS feeds I have promissed to desctibe?

1. If you're a Yahoo user, you can receive all the latest news you are subscribed on straight to your Yahoo homepage via RSS feeds. Don't you find it convenient? Cause I do. 
2. Any MySpace (a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake) profile that has a blog also has an RSS feed. 
3. If you love Google News (and I know for sure that some my blog readers do) but need more specialized news (it's natural cause everyone has their own interests), you can create a specialized Google News alert that will also widely use RSS feeds.  Google News alert ... "Whats that???", you may ask. "Once your account is verified, you have access not only to Google's news tracker, but a ton of other cool stuff like Google Groups, Answers and Web APIs", I may answer=) Hope everything's clear untill now=)
4. YouTube users will definitely like this: you can follow your favorite director, channel, or keyphrase via RSS feeds. How does it work? Be patient=)I'll try to explain it to you using my own Google Reader account. Let's think of one example.  I am especially interested in how to make nice friendship bracelets cause this is a kind of my hobbie. So there is a particular way of how to create an URL from the YouTube site in order to get the latest videos. Have a look: 

www.youtube.com/rss/tag/friendship+bracelets.rss

So what do I do now? I just copy this link and enter it to the Google Reader:

And what do I get? Look here:

All the latest videos are right in front of my nose=)

The same thing is when you wanna look for some videos devoted to the... let's say... Linkin Park band. You have to insert the folowing link then:

 www.youtube.com/rss/tag/linkin+park.rss 

Are there still any doubts that RSS Feeds are a little wonder in the Internet world?=)

5. Do you use Craiqslist (cause I don't but still...=)? It is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified ads with sections devoted to jobs, housing, services etc. Every category has an RSS feed, and you can even program your parameters. So it simplifies the searching process on such huge sites like THIS one. 

That's all for today. Make another cup of tea in several days cause I'll carry on spreading this list=)

See you!

RSS: FAQs

Hello you, my dear reader! 

I tried to gooooooogle something new for you in order to impress you somehow. You know, there's really a lot I want to say but because of some limitations I have to explain everything in a clear way. I know you have a lot to do besides reading all those blog posts on blogger.com etc. So let's start right now! 

1) Why RSS, not SSR or TTD? 

It's actually an acronym=) RSS stands for many versions of the same thing, for instance:

• Really Simple Syndication
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)  
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0) 
• Real-time Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)  

So what is the main purpose of all these meanings above? It's simple indeed. We use it in order make those web sites we are interested in deliver their latest news directly to our monitor. How does it work? watch the video lower that I have already published 2 weeks ago. 

2) What are the RSS readers that help me to use RSS technology?

• Bloglines.com
• Newsgator.com 
• My Yahoo Reader 
• Google Reader 

Try to test them if you want. All those students that attended the lecture devoted to RSS (#3 if I am not mistaking) were shown how to use Google Reader. Remember? 

To refresh you memory I will better give you a good video showing how to use Google Reader:

http://andywibbels.com/flash/google_reader.htm

Don't be lazy bones, look it through! It's better then to read long dull useless texts! 
Or just use THIS "Google Reader in Plain English" link:

There are some examples of RSS Feed Sources:

• NFL football news feeds
• BBC news feeds
• Hurricane Watch news feeds

That's all for today, guys=)

Be continued in several days=) Have fun.

How to add and configure RSS news (feed) to FeedBurner???

 www.feedburner.com/  This is ... (guess what=) ... a link to this function. What you really need is just to have a Goooogle account (and you DO now). Enter your email and password there and get this:

 I've got smth like this. Do you see the Language option on the right? You may choose that language you are fluent in:

• English
• 日本語
• Español
• Português
• Русский
• Deutsch (beta) 

 To get started you will need to insert the RSS feed address into a form called "Burn a feed right this instant" ("Зажигай" фид прямо сейчас"). 

 After having done that you will get to a page where you are to write the name of your future FeedBurner feed (RSS tape) in "The feed name» field.  

The field named "The feed address" is aimed to write the address of your future RSS tape using letters and different numbers. 

 After that you are given a link that shall be used for the RSS subscriptions of your future readers on the net.

 That's simple as you may see. I wont show you all the tricky things concerning this tool because my aim is to give a general idea to you. And I did it, I guess..=) 

P.S.: want to remind you - for further additional information click HERE.