rss

Display a link to your RSS feed in address bar

I was scanning the WordPress Support Forum the other day and someone asked how one could display an RSS feed icon in the address bar just like in the image below:

rss feed icon in address bar

I must confess I’d never noticed this before and of course now I can see it on most websites.

To add this feature to your site, simply replace the RSS feed code in the header.php from:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>" />

to:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> RSS Feed" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>" />

That simple change is all it takes!

Step-by-step guide to using Google Reader

Back in early May, Mhairi wrote a piece about Google Reader and how its use allows you to keep track of your favourite blogs. I thought I would provide a step-by-step guide for those who may not know how to get started.

Step 1 – Register
Sign up for a Google Account

Step 2 – Login
Once your account set up, login. You should come to a page which looks like this:

Google account home page

Step 3 – Set up your reader

Click on Reader to access Google Reader. Using the link “Add Subscription” in the top left hand column add your favourite blogs.

Add Subscription

Step 4 – Enjoy

Now that you’ve added your blogs, you only need to login to your account to access them all in one convenient location.

Alternative Readers
For those of you who may not want to use Google, there are several other options.

The Scoop On Google Reader

Google Reader is a great piece of technology developed by the folks over at Google labs that lets you easily subscribe to information on the web. In tech terms, Google Reader is an RSS or Atom feed aggregator. For those of us without propeller heads, this simply means that it allows available information on the web such as blog articles, e-zine pieces and news bulletins to come to one central place so that you can log in and enjoy at your leisure.

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RSS – not so simple after all!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication but judging from the questions I have received recently, from a user perspective its not really simple at all! Basically, RSS is a means by which information can be published and made available over the Internet to interested parties in one central place. For a user, this means that you can subscribe to information you want from specific blogs, news feeds, e-zines and so on and have this information sent directly to you in real time as updates are made.

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