Dave’s Wagon

Now, I know that those of you who wandered in here from Xanga are probably thinking, “Sure, this site is nice and all, but I can’t add it to my Xanga subscriptions.” True. But you can add your Xanga subscriptions to your Dave’s Wagon subscription. How? By using web feeds.

Web feeds are a convenient way to gather content from across the web into a single place where it can all be viewed. Instead of visiting multiple websites individually in hopes of finding updated content, web feeds can generate a single list of all the updated content from the sites you have subscribed to. Many kinds of web services use feeds: blogs (including Xanga), online news, web comics, podcasts, etc. Essentially, a web feed is like a Xanga subscription for the entire Internet.

The only thing needed to take advantage of feeds is what’s called a “news aggregator”. This is either a website or a piece of software that “pulls” web feeds into a single place where you can view them all. I recommend using a website aggregator because a) there’s no software to install, and b) you can access your feeds from any computer with an Internet connection. I personally use Bloglines and have been quite satisfied with the service. The sign up is quick and easy and while they require an email address, you can simply use a disposable one. Alternatively, if you already have a Yahoo! or Google account, you can subscribe to feeds through their services.

Once you have an aggregator, the next step is to find websites that offer feeds and subscribe to them. If you use Firefox as your browser, the easiest way to see if a site offers a feed is simply to look for the Atom icon on the right side of the URL in your address bar. If such a symbol is present, the site offers a feed. The next step is usually to look for “chicklets”, small, colorful buttons for each aggregator service that you can click on to subscribe. You’ll notice my sidebar has chicklets for Bloglines, Newsgator, and Google aggregators. If there are no chicklets, there may instead be a generic “Subscribe to feed” link to click on. If you are unable to find any of these but still know the website has a feed, pasting the site’s URL (web address) into your aggregator’s subscription section will usually do the trick (this seems to work fine with Xanga pages). This method may present you with several different feeds. In this case, choosing the one with the most subscribers is usually the best choice.

And there you have it. I hope that all made sense. I know most of you probably have never paid any attention to feeds before and that this all probably sounds like quite a hassle. I felt the same way before I started this site. Trust me: it’s not a hassle. I’ve replaced over a dozen bookmarks with a single one for Bloglines. It couldn’t be any more of an un-hassle.

That said, while I hope you take advantage of this service if it can be of use to you, don’t lurk solely in the feed without visiting the site itself. Those comments don’t write themselves! At least not until the spambots find my site.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 @ 2:15 am on the category Announcements, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Now, I know that those of you who wandered in here from Xanga are probably thinking, “Sure, this site is nice and all, but I can’t add it to my Xanga subscriptions.” True. But you can add your Xanga subscriptions to your Dave’s Wagon subscription. How? By using web feeds.

Web feeds are a convenient way to gather content from across the web into a single place where it can all be viewed. Instead of visiting multiple websites individually in hopes of finding updated content, web feeds can generate a single list of all the updated content from the sites you have subscribed to. Many kinds of web services use feeds: blogs (including Xanga), online news, web comics, podcasts, etc. Essentially, a web feed is like a Xanga subscription for the entire Internet.

The only thing needed to take advantage of feeds is what’s called a “news aggregator”. This is either a website or a piece of software that “pulls” web feeds into a single place where you can view them all. I recommend using a website aggregator because a) there’s no software to install, and b) you can access your feeds from any computer with an Internet connection. I personally use Bloglines and have been quite satisfied with the service. The sign up is quick and easy and while they require an email address, you can simply use a disposable one. Alternatively, if you already have a Yahoo! or Google account, you can subscribe to feeds through their services.

Once you have an aggregator, the next step is to find websites that offer feeds and subscribe to them. If you use Firefox as your browser, the easiest way to see if a site offers a feed is simply to look for the Atom icon on the right side of the URL in your address bar. If such a symbol is present, the site offers a feed. The next step is usually to look for “chicklets”, small, colorful buttons for each aggregator service that you can click on to subscribe. You’ll notice my sidebar has chicklets for Bloglines, Newsgator, and Google aggregators. If there are no chicklets, there may instead be a generic “Subscribe to feed” link to click on. If you are unable to find any of these but still know the website has a feed, pasting the site’s URL (web address) into your aggregator’s subscription section will usually do the trick (this seems to work fine with Xanga pages). This method may present you with several different feeds. In this case, choosing the one with the most subscribers is usually the best choice.

And there you have it. I hope that all made sense. I know most of you probably have never paid any attention to feeds before and that this all probably sounds like quite a hassle. I felt the same way before I started this site. Trust me: it’s not a hassle. I’ve replaced over a dozen bookmarks with a single one for Bloglines. It couldn’t be any more of an un-hassle.

That said, while I hope you take advantage of this service if it can be of use to you, don’t lurk solely in the feed without visiting the site itself. Those comments don’t write themselves! At least not until the spambots find my site.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 @ 2:15 am on the category Announcements, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.