5 ms·

Sadly, some blogs have begun to rely on RSS functionality in the browser, and don't place an RSS link visibly on the page. That makes it rather difficult to sub

Sadly, some blogs have begun to rely on RSS functionality in the browser, and don't place an RSS link visibly on the page. That makes it rather difficult to subscribe.

thebooktocome 16y ago
Most of the time you can copy the site's URL into Google Reader and it will try to find the proper RSS feed. It works for blogs hosted on Blogger and Wordpress, at least; not sure how it does it.
- troels 16y ago
  "not sure how it does it." The same way that some browsers do it. There is a meta-tag in the page, which describes which feed formats are available, and where to find them.
  - geekfactor 16y ago
    <link rel="alternate"> to be precise.
  - thebooktocome 16y ago
    I think it's a bit more than that. It's worked on sites that Safari can't find a feed for, and I presume Safari looks for the meta-tag.
    - TomasSedovic 16y ago
      I guess Google Reader uses a database of feeds that other people subscribed to. For one thing, it shows you the whole history of the feed -- even when the XML itself contains just the few most recent items.
- IChrisI 16y ago
  I enter the site name and it works too. Google is good at data parsing :)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
WildUtah 16y ago
In fact, the article is on a site without any visible RSS feed available itself. You have to read the HTML source and manually parse out the rss feed. And then the author complains that it's hard to use and people aren't taking advantage of it. Jerk.
- wmf 16y ago
  His whole point is that you should subscribe to feeds from the browser chrome (using the meta tag), not from a link in the page itself.
- xenomachina 16y ago
  You only have to read the HTML source if your browser doesn't show you the feed button next to the address bar. That was kind of the author's point. In fact, I'd bet that part of the reason many people don't use the address bar feed button is because the practice of having links to feeds is so common, and anything on the page is automatically more obvious than something out in the browser chrome.

Sadly, some blogs have begun to rely on RSS functionality in the browser, and don't place an RSS link visibly on the page. That makes it rather difficult to subscribe.

thebooktocome 16y ago

Most of the time you can copy the site's URL into Google Reader and it will try to find the proper RSS feed. It works for blogs hosted on Blogger and Wordpress, at least; not sure how it does it.

troels 16y ago
"not sure how it does it." The same way that some browsers do it. There is a meta-tag in the page, which describes which feed formats are available, and where to find them.
- geekfactor 16y ago
  <link rel="alternate"> to be precise.
- thebooktocome 16y ago
  I think it's a bit more than that. It's worked on sites that Safari can't find a feed for, and I presume Safari looks for the meta-tag.
  - TomasSedovic 16y ago
    I guess Google Reader uses a database of feeds that other people subscribed to. For one thing, it shows you the whole history of the feed -- even when the XML itself contains just the few most recent items.
IChrisI 16y ago
I enter the site name and it works too. Google is good at data parsing :)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

WildUtah 16y ago

In fact, the article is on a site without any visible RSS feed available itself. You have to read the HTML source and manually parse out the rss feed. And then the author complains that it's hard to use and people aren't taking advantage of it. Jerk.

wmf 16y ago
His whole point is that you should subscribe to feeds from the browser chrome (using the meta tag), not from a link in the page itself.
xenomachina 16y ago
You only have to read the HTML source if your browser doesn't show you the feed button next to the address bar. That was kind of the author's point. In fact, I'd bet that part of the reason many people don't use the address bar feed button is because the practice of having links to feeds is so common, and anything on the page is automatically more obvious than something out in the browser chrome.