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| Site Syndication Made Simple
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Location: Blogs Word of Mouse BlogMouse Tracks |
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| Posted by: Shane Murphy |
12/19/2007 |
When I talk about the power of RSS feeds with people, it sometimes feels like I'm speaking in some strange language that only a few understand. I've found, though, that just talking about it doesn't do the concept of web site syndication justice. You've got to see it to understand it.
Syndication of a web site is really not that complex of an issue. What gets confusing, I think, is that it's such a new concept to most people that they just can't wrap their minds around it.
"What do you mean they don't have to come to my web site to see it?" they ask. "What if they don't know how to see my feed?" Both good questions, of course.
The "don't have to come to my website" is easy to overcome. The syndicated content actually IS your website -- just in a different view. The second question, until the past week or so, was a much more cumbersome one to answer. But with the releases of both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0, adding an RSS feed to ones reader has become a lot simpler.
Until these browser upgrades, it was necessary to not only have a reader installed, but to understand how to add a feed to the reader. While it wasn't hard, it was indeed a bit cumbersome -- and a bit intimidating to Joe User. But no more.
We won't get into individual readers in this entry, but check out how simple it has become to subscribe to a feed using Firefox 2.0.
Most blogs have some sort of indicator as to where to click to subscribe to a feed. On our site, we use the standard  icon.
By clicking on that icon, Firefox now knows "Hey! You want to subscribe to a feed."
It's now as simple as choosing the reader you want to add the feed to, then clicking on the subscribe button.
Seriously... that's all there is to it! What was once a big reason to avoid the entire concept of syndicating a website has now been further simplified into a point-and-click endeavor. |
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