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The Making of an RSS FeedWritten by S. Housley from NotePage, Inc.
The Making of an RSS Feed by Sharon Housley of NotePage, Inc.Everyday more and more websites, news services and blogs are adding RSS content. RSS is a method of syndicating content.The concept of aggregating content in one central location or repository is very appealing. Consumers have become tired of push technology, RSS allows users flexibility to regain control of their content. RSS feed creators provide content without forcing it on consumers. In fact with RSS consumers are able to choose content they wish to view. How to Make an RSS Feed RSS feeds contain what are referred to as "items". The items are usually connected in some way and contain a common theme or other similarity. The following feed http://www.notepage.net/feed.xml contains eight items. The items are all SMS and paging related news articles that would likely benefit someone interested in wireless market. Each item contains: title description link The title and description should be written to describe content and link should reference webpage that contains that actual content. Like html, xml file uses open and close tags to designate title, description and link. Tags are enclosed in brackets <>, like standard html and close tag contains a forward slash /. The following is what an item in a xml file looks like: The Title Goes Here< itle> <descritpion>The description goes here</description> <link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link><p>As I mentioned earlier, an RSS feeds contains items and like <IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120767"> tags above, an open and close tag is used to distinguish between items. <p><item> <title>The Title Goes Here< itle> <descritpion>The description goes here</description> <link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link> </item><p><item> <title>Another Title Goes Here< itle> <descritpion>Another description goes here</description> <link>http://www.anotherlinkgoeshere.com</link> </item><p>Now an RSS Feed is a series of items, these items are chained together to create what is called a "Channel". <p>The Channel appears at<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120768"> top of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120769"> file and tells people how<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120770"> items relate to each other. Like items channels use title, description and link tags to describe its content. The open channel tag <chanel> occurs before<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120771"> first item and<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120772"> close tag </channel> occurs after<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120773"> last item. <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) --><td align="top" width="10%"></td><td align="top" width="45%"><h2>How To Integrate Keywords Into Your Web Site Copy</h2><font size="2">Written by Kalena Jordan</font><br><br><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br> <font size="2">The history of search engines is a bit like<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar "> plot of a soap opera. You know - Bo finds Hope, Bo loses Hope, Bo finds Hope again only to discover it's actually Hope's long lost evil twin Princess Gina and so on. <p>Just like<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120758"> TV soaps,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120759"> search industry has a strange and illogical history. We started with a particular cast of search engines, new ones soon rose up and tried to usurp market share from<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120760"> originals, some engines jumped into bed with each other, some of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120761"> well known characters died or were killed off by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120762"> newcomers, "good" engines decide to turn "evil" in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120763"> grab for market share, new industry darlings were born and so on. <p>Those of us who have been watching this particular soap opera for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120764"> past few years are quite addicted to all<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120765"> plot twists and turns. The thing is, search engines seem to have finally come full circle. Most started up originally with a simple premise: to provide a useful service to persons surfing<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120766"> Internet; a way to search<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120767"> millions of web sites and find specific, relevant information, 24 hours a day. <p>However once a few key players became heavily trafficked, search engines became viable advertising vehicles, attracting mega bucks from companies willing to pay them for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120768"> privilege of displaying banner ads to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120769"> significant number of eyeballs viewing their sites on a daily basis. Soon everyone wanted in on<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120770"> act. New search engines developed overnight, driven mainly by profiteers, hungry for their piece of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120771"> dot com boom. The "Who's Got<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120772"> Biggest Index" game began and<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120773"> searching public began to demand more relevancy and fresher results. Under pressure from over-inflated company valuations,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120774"> Dot Com bubble soon burst and everyone was left covered with<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120775"> sticky mess of financial accountability. <p>Meanwhile, savvy webmasters had begun to study how search engines worked in order to understand how to structure their web site code to improve their ranking for target search queries. A whole new industry developed from this activity: search engine optimization. Webmasters who didn't have<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120776"> time or inclination to learn search engine optimization techniques simply paid others who did. Popular directories such as Yahoo! and LookSmart took advantage of consumer demand for listings by introducing<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120777"> first paid submission services. Industry players took note of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120778"> developments and introduced commercial search engines where web site owners could simply pay their way to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120779"> top of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120780"> rankings rather than rely on ranking algorithms - voila! -<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120781"> first pay per click search engines were born. <p>It wasn't long before smaller search engines and directories followed<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120782"> lead set by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120783"> larger directories and introduced services to assist webmasters to ensure a place for their sites in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120784"> search listings - either via a third party partnership with pay per click search engines, or by introducing a new guaranteed indexing service which became widely referred to as Paid Inclusion. Soon it seemed everyone was partnering with everyone else in order to get their cut of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120785"> deals being done. Some search engines were cannibalized by others or bought out by inexperienced companies and sacrificed at<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120786"> altar of mis-management. Search veterans left cash poor by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120787"> dot com bust, or unable to cope with<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120788"> competition, fell by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120789"> wayside. <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --></tr><tr><td>Cont'd on page 2 ==<a class="mlink" href="2-The_Making_of_an_RSS_Feed-20759.htm">></a></td></tr></table><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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