Mahalo's RSS Best Practices

What is RSS?

  • Mahalo's Guide to RSS
  • RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication"
  • RSS is a format for viewing the Web
    • Rather than having to visit a page to see the most recently updated articles, they can be delivered to your e-mail or to a SeRP automatically whenever they are posted
  • RSS feeds can be inserted into a SeRP using a simple protocol that will automatically update the 3 newest links
  • RSS files typically end with .rss or .xml extensions
    • There is a different system for RSS known as "Atom" that works essentially the same way.
    • An Atom feed may look like this: http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom

When should I include RSS feeds?

  • In general, only use 1 RSS feed per SeRP
    • In some specific cases, 2 different feeds are okay
  • Quality topic-specific information:
    • Major cities, for example, might have the local paper constantly refresh
    • Businesses or groups that are frequently in the news, like Google, McDonald's, TV networks, Sports Teams, etc.
  • Blogs:
    • Use these a bit more sparingly, but if your topic has an excellent, specific blog on the subject, an RSS link to that page might prove useful
    • For SeRPs about specific blogs (such as Dooce or Crooks and Liars), an RSS feed from the site in question can go in the #7 slot in the Mahalo Top 7
    • See How should I format RSS feeds below for further details

When should I avoid RSS feeds?

  • Finite events:
    • Anything that doesn't update daily or at least multiple times a week should not have RSS
  • Specialized topics:
    • The links that appear on the SeRP should always, if possible, relate directly to the topic of the page
    • Example: A Marvel Comics RSS feed on the Spider-Man page. Most of those links won't relate exactly to the topic, so should not be included

Where do I find RSS feeds?

  • Feeds can be identified by several terms
    • RSS
    • Feeds (or "Content Feeds")
    • XML
    • Subscribe/Subscription
    • My Yahoo
    • Google Reader

News Sites

  • Check the footer (see NYT front page, CNN.com or MSNBC.com)
  • Check the sidebar
  • Occasionally they will be on the header, but rarely...I couldn't even find a good example

Blogs

  • Generally near the top banner of the page or next to the Category/Tags list
  • Technorati: Perform your search, then look right under the search bar to "subscribe" to the results

On Aggregators and Search Engines

  • Let's say you always wanted to show Google's 3 most recent news stories on a particular subject
    • Do the search
    • Find the RSS link for your recent search...On Google News, it's along the left sidebar.
    • Copy the link to your clipboard and then paste it into your SeRP
  • Copying is preferable to clicking the link, as some browsers will automatically insert the RSS feed into your personal reader (such as Google Reader) rather than providing you with an opportunity to cut and paste
    • Make extra certain that the link fits the proper format
    • Occasionally, Google News will spit out links that require editing:
    • In this example, of an improperly formatted RSS feed, we would need to cut the link down to this:


      • These sections of the URL - "hl=en&ned=&" and "&ie=UTF-8" and "&ned=:ePkh8BM9EwLbwQq0w4AD3RagaKoBC6Y9AJ7EBxQ" - are providing information about your browser and not useful RSS info
      • Test out the URL in your Web browser before pasting it into your SeRP

How do I add RSS feeds to my SeRP?

  • Add a link as you traditionally would
    • Example: [http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=taliban Google News]
  • After the link, without leaving a space, add the RSS link
    • Example: <rss>THE URL OF YOUR FEED</rss>
  • All together, it should look like this:
    • [http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=taliban Google News]<rss>http://news.google.com/news?q=taliban&output=rss</rss>

How should I format RSS feeds on my SeRP pages?

  • RSS feeds should ONLY go in the Top 7 for Blog or Website SeRPs (that is, SeRPs about specific websites or blogs)
    • The #7 link in the Top 7 can then be an RSS feed of the blog or website in question
    • Example: On the Dooce page, the #1 Top 7 link is to the blog itself while the #7 link shows the blog's 3 most recent posts
  • RSS feeds should go at the top of their respective section
  • The source of the feed should be clearly identified, as in the Google News example above
    • If the origin of the RSS does not have its own individual page link (as in, a New York Times feed), the link should still specify its origin
    • Example: The New York Times:<rss>http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Books.xml</rss>
    • Again, note that there are no spaces between the site name and the RSS feed

What are Group RSS Feeds?

  • Group RSS feeds work identically to regular old fashioned RSS feeds, but braided together (or, in other words, they run multiple RSS feeds at once and pull the most recent information from all of them). It's a great way of giving these pages some extra balance and diversity without going through and adding three or four different individual feeds or extraneous articles.
  • Instead of <rss> and </rss>, the opening and closing tags look like this:
    • <grouprss> and </grouprss>
  • Feeds go in between the tags all bundled together, separated with semi-colons with NO SPACES
    • <grouprss>http://rssfeed1/rss.xml;http://rssfeed2/rss.xml;http://rssfeed3/rss.xml</grouprss>
  • It's best to pick 2 or 3 sites that have similar updating schedules, if possible
  • The links should appear first on the actual page, like with a regular RSS feed. The line begins "News from..."
  • EXAMPLE:
    • *News from [http://foxnewslink.com Fox News], [http://CNNlink.com CNN] and [http://NewYorkTimeslink.com The New York Times]<grouprss>http://foxnewsrss/rss.xml;http://cnnrss/rss.xml;http://nytimesrss/rss.xml</grouprss>

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