Problems Identifying Feed Links
Dave Winer posts today on the issue of finding a standard way to alert readers to the
presence of a webfeed. Yeah, I agree — what a pain that we have no standardization. I’m more amazed when I’ve gone to some prominent blogs that I simply cannot find their
feeds anywhere. I end up going over to Yahoo, then doing a search because if it has found the feed address, it will list that below the page itself. Other times, there’s just
no consistency.
Here’s a rundown of just a few of the blogs I read on a regular basis that show how it can be difficult to recognize when a feed is offered:
I grappled with what to do about highlighting feeds when we first started one for Search Engine Watch over a year ago. I went with using the little XML and RSS icons that
I’d seen many other blogs use. Why both? To ensure even more recognition.
In addition, we now accompany them by a text link saying All Newsletters & Feeds in our left nav, which
brings up a page showing all the feeds we offer. On the blog itself, there’s also a separate listing for just the blog feed with both the icons and a
Click For Blog Feed! link.
I certainly don’t have the perfect solution. Like Dave, I simply wish there was some way that anyone with a feed could alert people that it is present. A standardized logo
would help. I’d go with the word “Feed” as part of it to skip past the stupid RSS versus Atom debate. Since most feedreaders don’t care the exact feed format, using the word
Feed would be sufficient.