Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site (NLA/NEMA 2008)

Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 1: Introduction Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission NLA/NEMA 2008

What is RSS?
Depending on who you ask it stands for either “Really Simple Syndication”, “Rich Site Summary”, or “RDF Site Summary”.
“ Really Simple Syndication” is the de facto definition today.
RSS is an XML language for syndicating items on the Internet.

How does RSS work? Information Provider Information Receiver

Implications of RSS
Information is received in a single location
Information is received quickly
The need to visit the originating Web site is reduced
and…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/491666805/ The possible end of this:

Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission Computers in Libraries 2008 Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 2: Getting Feeds Where None Exist

Feedity

Feedity
Limitations
Works better on some Web pages than on others.
Notes
Be sure to take advantage of the refine feature for more accurate results.

rss
Limitations
Generally works better than Feedity but has no ability to refine the results.

Feedmysearch

Feedmysearch
Limitations
None to speak of

Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission Computers in Libraries 2008 Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 3: Republishing Feeds

Integrating feed content into your Web site
Grab content from multiple RSS feeds
Reduce and/or mash it
Republish it on your site

Feed2JS

Feed2JS
Limitations
Third party (but you can download and install it on your own server which is recommended)

feed.informer

FeedDigest

feed.informer

feed.informer
Limitations
Third party service.
Limited to five feeds in free version.

Scrolling RSS News Ticker

Scrolling RSS News Ticker
Limitations
Third party
Shows small advertisement

RSS Scrollbox Widget

RSS Scrollbox Widget
Limitations
Third party
Shows small advertisement
Ad free, local-hosted version available for $35.

Grazr
Limitations
Third party

Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission Computers in Libraries 2008 Integrating RSS into Your Web site Part 4: Feed Notification

IM Feeds

IM Feeds
Limitations
IMs tend to come in without any formatting. i.e. a single large block of text.
Seems to randomly not like valid RSS feeds.

Pingie

Pingie
Limitations
Doesn’t like feedburner feeds

ZapTXT

ZapTXT
Limitations
Can’t handle feeds that require logins
Sometimes reports a feed as “not valid” and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Searches on multiple keywords are “OR” searches. “AND” searches don’t seem to be possible.

Mail2RSS

Mail2RSS
Limitations
Bloglines doesn’t like the RSS2.0 feeds, use the 1.0 link instead
Mail automatically deletes after seven days
Feeds are limited to 20 items
Potential security issue when using Subscribe with Bloglines bookmarklet (next slide)

Mail2RSS

RssFwd

RssFwd
Limitations
Some (including me) argue that converting RSS to e-mail defeats the purpose of RSS.

FeedJournal

FeedJournal
Limitations
Must manually regenerate each issue

Contact information
Michael Sauers
[email_address]
http://travelinlibrarian.info/
http://www.slideshare.net/travelinlibrarian/
http://www.delicious.com/travelinlibrarian/nlanema2008/rss

Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site (NLA/NEMA 2008)

by Michael Sauers

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Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site (NLA/NEMA 2008) Presentation Transcript