Comments RSS feed address after turning on HTTPS for a blog with a custom domains

<b>This article documents the change the Comments RSS feed associated with blog, when you switch on the HTTPS option for a blog with a custom domain.</b><br /><b><br /></b> <b><br /></b> <br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_uAPOOuDUSYn7mnAklUAEPqpizbJ9WzHtWQxLb-mBhjglIsXNqvbRpa96GSmZCVLAZAU6JHU84j2dXamexiuMpxDccaHdVRLDwKHF8PMBtDZnEvQY63NyGAwC4xx8UwJyv34o3ovAJmF/s1600/rss-blog-comments-feed-address-change-https-enablement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1570" data-original-width="1570" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_uAPOOuDUSYn7mnAklUAEPqpizbJ9WzHtWQxLb-mBhjglIsXNqvbRpa96GSmZCVLAZAU6JHU84j2dXamexiuMpxDccaHdVRLDwKHF8PMBtDZnEvQY63NyGAwC4xx8UwJyv34o3ovAJmF/s200/rss-blog-comments-feed-address-change-https-enablement.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>If your blog has a custom domain, you now have an option to switch on HTTPS to make it more secure.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you do this, then the RSS feed address for your blog's comments changes.</div><div><br /></div><div>This may be handled graciously by your template.  But if you use a service like Feedburner to display recent comments in an HTML gadget, then the gadget will break unless you update.    Well - mine did anyways.   Maybe your settings are different.</div><div><br /><br /></div><h2>What was your blog's RSS comment feed address</h2><div>Articles published by various people, including Google, say that your blog has various RSS feeds, including  2 site comments feeds.<br /><br /><b>Atom</b>:   http://yourCustom.Domain/feeds/comments/default<br /><b>RSS</b>:     http://yourCustom.Domain/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss<br /><br />(substituting your actual custom domain   eg myBlog.com   for yourCustom.Domain)</div><div><br />However after switching HTTPS on, I found that these were simply re-directing to the homepage - and this was causing any gadgets which used the comments feed to fail with a message like "the RSS feed is no longer available for display".    (I forgot to take a screenshot before fixing it - and now it's fixed I cannot un-fix it because Feedburner won't let me save an invalid feed address!)</div><div><br /><br /><h2>What is your blog's RSS comment feed address</h2><div>After trying various options, I have found that for my custom-domain blogs with HTTPS enabled, the correct RSS address for comments feeds is<br /><br />RSS:     http<span style="color: red;"><b>s://www.</b></span>yourCustom.Domain/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss</div><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">(Again - substituting your actual custom domain   eg myBlog.com   for yourCustom.Domain)</span><br /><br /><br /></div><div>This one may work also - I haven't had a need to test it properly, so don't want to say for certain:<br />Atom:   http<b><span style="color: red;">s://www.</span></b>yourCustom.Domain/feeds/comments/default  <br /><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div><br /></div><hr /><h2>Related Articles</h2><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Why RSS / Subscribe to Posts is important for your blog</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/adding-rss-feed-icon-to-your-blog-using.html">Adding an RSS feed icon to your blog</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/07/finding-feed-address-for-blogs-rss-feed.html">Finding the RSS feed address for your blog</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/follow-by-email-gadget-easy-way-to-add.html">The Follow-by-Email gadget:  a very simple way to give your readers access to blog-updates by email</a>

Comments RSS feed address after turning on HTTPS for a blog with a custom domains

This article documents the change the Comments RSS feed associated with blog, when you switch on the HTTPS option for a blog with a custom d...

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Understanding the Follow-by-Email gadget and Feedburner

<b>The Follow-by-email gadget uses Feedburner's email-subscription service.   It's very easy to add to your blog, but there are some things that you need to think about if you are using it to deliver blog-posts to your followers by email.</b><br /><b><br /></b> <b><br /></b> <br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_IdShRIpj9fvhvRkaBDUF_tZdEW69XjiOIw9IiK7PHA1aizqozGacdXXpKyOaL3YzipN7wyMHt4tnN3a5RL-MDYaavLaLvHd1fCnsuV0CnDmmW6a7j48z9WXiMLkopVZgM9wQ-9m2sYj_/s1600/follow-by-email-gadget-and-feedburner-subscription-service-for-blogger-blogs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1580" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_IdShRIpj9fvhvRkaBDUF_tZdEW69XjiOIw9IiK7PHA1aizqozGacdXXpKyOaL3YzipN7wyMHt4tnN3a5RL-MDYaavLaLvHd1fCnsuV0CnDmmW6a7j48z9WXiMLkopVZgM9wQ-9m2sYj_/s320/follow-by-email-gadget-and-feedburner-subscription-service-for-blogger-blogs.png" width="320" /></a></div>The Follow-by-Email gadget is a very <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/follow-by-email-gadget-easy-way-to-add.html">simple way to give your readers access to blog-updates by email:</a> it delivers a message in their inbox every day that you post.<br /><br />But to decide if it's a good thing to use, to get good value from it, and to troubleshoot any problems, you need to understand a little more about how it works.<br /><br />And, since it uses Feedburner, this means understanding how Feedburner works, too.<br /><br /><br /><h2>What is Feedburner</h2>The Follow by Email gadget uses a product called Feedburner to manage the list of people who have followed, ie subscribed to your blog.  <br /><br />Feedburner was originally a tool to enhance the RSS subscriptions that website-owners delivered - see <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Why RSS / Subscribe to Posts is important for your blog</a>  for info about RSS.   Very roughly speaking, every time a website publishes a new item, Feedburner adds that item to a "feed" or summary of the site, and tells all the subscribers about it, without the subscribers having to visit the website.<br /><br />One option that Feedburner added was subscribe-by-email:  website owners who use Feedburner for this have to turn the service on, and then put "something" on their website that offers the service to people who want to get emailed updates.   To start with, Feedburner just kept a list of emails addresses, but now it's more sophisticated:   it checks with addresses that they really do want to be subscribed before adding them to the list, and offers an un-subscribe option with each subscription email.<br /><br />Adding the follow-by-email option to your blog sets this up for you.   It:<br /><br /><ul><li>Sets up a feed, </li><li>Turns the email service "on", and </li><li>Puts an email--address request box onto your blog.   </li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>What is set up when you add the follow-by-email gadget</h2>The Follow-by-email gadget can be added to your blog <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/03/adding-gadget-to-your-blog-using.html">the same way you would add any other gadget</a>.   Doing this this means that, you are logged in to a <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/understanding-google-accounts.html">Google account</a> at the time.<br /><br />If that Google account <b>already owns an entry</b> (ie a "feed") in Feedburner for the blog you're adding the gadget to, then the gadget just uses this feed.<br /><br />But if the Google account <b>doesn't currently have an entry</b> from the blog, then a new feed is created, and the email service is turned on for it.:<br /><ul><li>The Feed Title is based on the blog's name.  </li><li>The feed address appears to be fairly random (eg I created one for a blog called "Another test blog", and the feed name is    <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/meaUW">http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/meaUW</a> </li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEief8TW9_HRARFMOlbzp0hbYptFMDEYp5XQ3lcMznwXD7_EXexIBebmYzY7QdloTkNGoZF5-ck_XUeQvQkC2ZAWPBbyYIi_YGN15dAMn8O1glJwlRADGcoTTvgZ8CxVqcYYG4kbuTHXgE4c/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEief8TW9_HRARFMOlbzp0hbYptFMDEYp5XQ3lcMznwXD7_EXexIBebmYzY7QdloTkNGoZF5-ck_XUeQvQkC2ZAWPBbyYIi_YGN15dAMn8O1glJwlRADGcoTTvgZ8CxVqcYYG4kbuTHXgE4c/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-client="ca-pub-4862549906412680" data-ad-slot="3409801940"></ins><br /><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /><h2>Advantages of the Follow-by-email gadget</h2>This gadget makes it a lot easier to offer a follow-by-email option:  you don't have to set up the feed yourself, or use a HTML-gadget to provide a subscribe-by-email form.<br /><br />And because it uses Feedburner, you have full access to Feedburner's statistics, and a number of other things that are included in Feedburner's features, including:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/customising-feedburners-email.html">Customizing the "click the link to subscribe" message</a>, </li><li><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/01/getting-list-of-people-who-have-asked.html">Getting a list of all your email subscribers</a> (verified and unverified), and </li><li>Configuring the look-and-feel (including timing and from-address) of the daily email to your follow-by-emailers. </li></ul><div><br /></div><h2>Disadvantages of the Follow-by-email gadget</h2>There are some disadvantages of both the gadget, and the approach that Blogger has used to implement it:<br /><ul><li>Google / Blogger have mixed up the words "subscribers" and "followers".  It used to be that subscribers used RSS gadgets (from Feedburner or other feed-providers), and followers used Blogger's own following-tools.   But this new gadget is called "follow-by-email", and it's possible that mixing up the ideas will make some people very confused.</li></ul><ul><li>Using the gadget, you have <b>very little control over the look and feel</b> of the  follow-by-email option on your blog.   <br /><br />Compare this to the "Get updates by email" option which is in the top of the sidebar on this blog:  I've put a lot of effort into getting the wording "just right" so potential subscribers know that they will be getting a please-confirm email.   This on-screen wording means that even if they don't act on the email immediately, they get another reminder about if they come back to the blog again in the future.</li><li>You have no control over the message that potential follow-by-emailers are shown to tell them to verify their subscription.  It looks like this<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MRSerF0NRypbWo6zJ3nzzutWwLRhQh64M8gu-p4RBDJzfe_BeoEWfjO1aK7wZLHh9aF2kAAA_FlBAMZrwjNwyLgScG5h6IEpwoEX6I42BZ1sjZWyMKY7hUfm3zgwJcl91AEvTc8YhvQI/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MRSerF0NRypbWo6zJ3nzzutWwLRhQh64M8gu-p4RBDJzfe_BeoEWfjO1aK7wZLHh9aF2kAAA_FlBAMZrwjNwyLgScG5h6IEpwoEX6I42BZ1sjZWyMKY7hUfm3zgwJcl91AEvTc8YhvQI/" width="400"></a></div><br />While this message is fine for the tech-minded people who are likely subscribe to an RSS feed, it will probably bring a <i><b>glazed look</b></i> to those of your visitors who need a very simple subscribe-by-email option!   </li></ul><ul><li>People who follow your blog by email will not be included in your Followers gadget or count - though you can <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/encourage-new-subscribers-by-enabling.html">use the Feedcount button to show how many subscribers your blog has</a>.   </li></ul><ul><li>People who subscribe to your blog by email <b>don't see any of the widgets</b> on your blog, or any advertisements.   (Unlike regular RSS-feed subscribers for whom you can set up AdSense for feeds).  Despite the options mentioned above, ou have very little control over how they see your messages, especially if they happen to be using email software that shows your messages in plain text.</li></ul><br /><br /><hr /><h2>Related Articles</h2><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/customising-feedburners-email.html">Customizing the "click the link to subscribe" message</a><br />  <br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/01/getting-list-of-people-who-have-asked.html">Getting a list of all your email subscribers</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Why RSS / Subscribe to Posts is important for your blog</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/follow-by-email-gadget-easy-way-to-add.html">The Follow-by-Email gadget:  a very simple way to give your readers access to blog-updates by email</a>

Understanding the Follow-by-Email gadget and Feedburner

The Follow-by-email gadget uses Feedburner's email-subscription service.   It's very easy to add to your blog, but there are some th...

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Turning the RSS feed off or on again

<b>By default, public Blogger sites offer an RSS feed.  But there may be times when you need to turn it off, either for good or temporarily.</b><br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GaVCynWc_C93sBxMLkAP2ieACOjqSZpErZRltrnkYF8nVjzwt477s_dI_VWTumSIVJ0P8wHRoVMz_gLVxO0c04lbliB-c-VOWEEJI8L8qNjZcpvQn8gSuUPC7F_avE9KcXtST_EWLTCz/s1600/turn-blogger-rss-feed-off-on-start-stop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1600" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GaVCynWc_C93sBxMLkAP2ieACOjqSZpErZRltrnkYF8nVjzwt477s_dI_VWTumSIVJ0P8wHRoVMz_gLVxO0c04lbliB-c-VOWEEJI8L8qNjZcpvQn8gSuUPC7F_avE9KcXtST_EWLTCz/s320/turn-blogger-rss-feed-off-on-start-stop.png" width="320" /></a></div>Previously I've explained <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">what RSS is and why it's important for bloggers</a>. <br /><br />But there may be times when you want to<b> turn off your RSS feed</b>, either because you don't want to offer one at all, or because you want to make some posts, or changes to existing posts that are <b>not notified</b> to  your RSS subscribers. <br /><br />Or you may need to turn it back on again - for example, if you want to use a <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/09/dynamic-templates-turning-them-on-in.html">dynamic template</a>, to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/follow-by-email-gadget-easy-way-to-add.html">offer a subscribe-by-email option</a>, or to enable automatic posting to Google +.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>How turn off your blog's RSS feed</h2><div><ul><li>Go to the <b>Settings > Other</b> tab.</li></ul><ul><li>Under "<b>Site Feed</b>", use the drop-down to change<b> Allow Blog Feed</b> to "None".   <br />(This is the only option that totally turns your feed off:  the others, including Custom, leave some aspects of the feed on.)</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklMRwefKZQnbXYak31p13pX-5_R4CivroJLwuJeXKmzNQsXeZLqh-un-HVYZx2zjfP7FYu61Dwx-BQtGLhL-xTwUwpmlLDF0jOPfdz5GGuPQyKTZv7i2qZsvkesEdv81BFMi7miCP9Jbu/s533/turning-rss-feed-off.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklMRwefKZQnbXYak31p13pX-5_R4CivroJLwuJeXKmzNQsXeZLqh-un-HVYZx2zjfP7FYu61Dwx-BQtGLhL-xTwUwpmlLDF0jOPfdz5GGuPQyKTZv7i2qZsvkesEdv81BFMi7miCP9Jbu/s400/turning-rss-feed-off.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>How turn on your RSS feed</h2>This is just the same as turning the feed off (see above), except that your need to choose one of these options instead:<br /><ul><li><b>Full</b> - the whole post is shown in your feed</li><li><b>Until Jump Break</b>  - only the part of the post before the jump break is sent to your feed</li><li><b>Short</b> - only the first 120 (ish) letters, or less if the jump break comes first, are sent to your feed.</li></ul><br />Also, the new interface has a <b>Custom option</b>, and the old interface has an <b>Advanced Mode</b>.   If you use these , you can individually set the value for <b>post feed</b>, <b>comments feed (all comments)</b>, and <b>comments-feed-per-post</b>.<br /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Private blogs and RSS</span></b><br />Blogs that are <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2008/02/restricting-your-blogs-readers-isnt-as.html">not public</a> do not offer RSS feeds, because they cannot be secured.   So if your blog is private, then it does not matter what setting you choose, your blog will <b>not</b> offer an RSS feed.<br /><br /><br /><br /><hr /><h2>Related Articles</h2><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Understanding RSS - why it's imporant for bloggers who want to grow an audience</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/09/dynamic-templates-turning-them-on-in.html">What are dynamic templates</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/04/linking-your-blog-to-social-networks.html">Linking your blog and the social networks</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/follow-by-email-gadget-easy-way-to-add.html">Follow-by-email gadget:  an easy way to offer email subscriptions</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2008/02/restricting-your-blogs-readers-isnt-as.html">Private blogs aren't as secure as you might think</a></div>

Turning the RSS feed off or on again

By default, public Blogger sites offer an RSS feed.  But there may be times when you need to turn it off, either for good or temporarily. Pr...

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Adding an RSS feed icon to your blog, using Feedburner

<b>Feedburner's chicklets are used to add the standard "orange radar" button to your blog.  This lets readers to subscribe the RSS feed of your choice.   The information is targeted to Blogger users, but most of it applies to anyone who uses Feedburner.</b> <br /><br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><h2>What is a Chicklet, and why you need one:</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpyfkuXCw7u5i5XIDd4wzsZiqThLfodaOKjpjFrHY2o5sdiDrlQNb_FUNpY6pmoCa9mG9AX_tvLZfGWXk442ck_3cFwJeJNmvk9-SGOHnV4nZ59ymd9liXo3MGXGs0iUZNV0qozy3FKct/s454/rss-orange-radar-bar-chicklet-icon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpyfkuXCw7u5i5XIDd4wzsZiqThLfodaOKjpjFrHY2o5sdiDrlQNb_FUNpY6pmoCa9mG9AX_tvLZfGWXk442ck_3cFwJeJNmvk9-SGOHnV4nZ59ymd9liXo3MGXGs0iUZNV0qozy3FKct/s454/rss-orange-radar-bar-chicklet-icon.png" t8="true" width="250px" /></a></div>Previously I've explained how to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/hiding-subscribe-to-post-atom-at-bottom.html">remove the (ugly and confusing) "Subscribe to Posts (atom)" link from your blog</a>, and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">why RSS / Subscribe to Posts is important to your blog</a> and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/getting-started-with-feedburner.html">how to create a Feedburner feed for it</a>.<br /><br />But an RSS feed is useless unless people subscribe to it.  So as well as making the feed, you also need to <b>put something in your blog that lets your readers sign up for it</b>.<br /><br />A standard option for this is the orange square with "radar" markings on it, which many people call a "<b>chicklet</b>" (since it lets your viewer - the chicken? - have access to the feed you are providing).<br /><br />Feedburner also has options for:<br /><ul><li>Using a custom icon from popular web aggregators <br />I'm not sure that this is a great idea, because you don't know what feed-reader software your readers actually use, and the whole point of a feed is that you don't dictate how people see your blog.</li></ul><ul><li>Using an icon that promotes Feedburner.  This cute, but I've never seen anyone use it.</li></ul><br /><h2>How to add a chicklet to your blog:</h2><br /><b>Log in</b> to <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/" target="_blank">Feedburner</a>, using the Google <b>account that owns the feed</b>.<br /><br />Click on the <b>name of the feed</b> you want to provide a subscription tool for.<br /><br />Choose the <b>Publicize</b> tab.<br /><br />Choose the <b>Chicklet Chooser</b> option, from the left navigation bar.<br /><br />Choose one of the options shown:  the default one is the standard-size RSS-radar-button.<br /><br />Scroll to the bottom of the screen and either<br /><ul><li><b>Copy the HTML</b> that is shown, and <b>add it to your blog</b> in the same way that you would <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/putting-html-code-from-third-party-into.html">add any other 3rd party HTML</a>, <br /><br /><b>OR  </b><i>(note:  there have been some reports that the option below doesn't work any longer, as Blogger has changed but tools like Feedburner have not help up)</i></li></ul><ul><li>Choose <b>Blogger</b> from the drop down list beside "use as a widget in", and click <b>Go</b>.  <br /><br />This takes you to a Blogger screen where you can <b>choose which blog</b> you want to add the gadget to (if your current login has more than one), and <b>what title</b> to use for it.  <br /><br />When this is done, click <b>Add Widget</b>.  <br /><br />This takes you to the Design > Layout tab, where you can drag-and-drop the widget to wherever you want it.   <br />(When I tried it just now, instead of the layout screen I got a "bad request" message.  However pressing Save and then View Blog brought up the blog with the gadget showing, and I was able to go back and edit the layout later on).</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>What your readers see:</h2>Your readers will see an item, wherever you put it, that looks like this:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips" rel="alternate" title="Subscribe to my feed" type="application/rss+xml"><img alt="" src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon32x32.png" style="border-bottom: 0pt; border-left: 0pt; border-right: 0pt; border-top: 0pt;" /></a><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips" rel="alternate" title="Subscribe to my feed" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a><br /><br />or<br /><br /><a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips"><img alt="Add to Google Reader or Homepage" height="17px" src="http://buttons.googlesyndication.com/fusion/add.gif" style="border-bottom: 0pt; border-left: 0pt; border-right: 0pt; border-top: 0pt;" width="104px" /></a><br /><br />or<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips" title="Blogger-Hints-and-Tips" type="application/rss+xml"><img alt="Subscribe in Bloglines" src="http://www.bloglines.com/images/sub_modern11.gif" style="border-bottom: 0pt; border-left: 0pt; border-right: 0pt; border-top: 0pt;" /></a><br /><br /></div>or something similar, depending on what option you chose from the Chicklet Chooser screen.<br /><br />When someone clicks on one of these items, they are taken to either a screen where they choose which feed-reader software to add your site to (if you've used the first option), or to the specific feed-reader software.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Customising the widget code:</h2>If you use the generic RSS button, then you may want to customise the widget code slightly:  It looks ugly not to have a space between the picture and the word "Subscribe" - and it's good to have the phrase "RSS" on the screen because that'ss what RSS-savvy people search for when they're looking at a website and want to find the subscribe option.  I also prefer if the subscribe action opens in a new tab/window, rather than taking the reader away from my blog.<br /><br />This is quite easy to do, if you put a few line breaks in so you can see that<br /><ul><li>the code is actually two separate link statements</li><li>the first one has an image (the orange "radar bars" that it takes from Feedburner)</li><li>the second is a text link</li><li>both of them link to the RSS feed address</li></ul><br />So it's quite easy to add a couple of extra spaces (shown as &nbsp; ), change the text as I've done below, and add   <i>target="_blank"</i>   to both of the links<br /><blockquote><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" <b>target="_blank"</b>><br /><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon32x32.png" alt="" style="vertical-align:middle;border:0"/><br /></a><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br /><br /><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogger-hints-and-tips" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" <b>target="_blank"</b>><br /><br />Subscribe via RSS<br /><br /></a></blockquote><br />I generally also put the option to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-subscribe-by-email-option-using.html">subscribe to my blog by email</a> and the <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/encourage-new-subscribers-by-enabling.html">Feedburner FeedCount item</a> (which shows the number of subscribers) in the same area, to give people options, and to encourage them to subscribe.<br /><br /><br /><hr /><h2>Related Articles:</h2><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-subscribe-by-email-option-using.html">Using Feedburner to give your blog a Subscribe by Email option</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/putting-html-code-from-third-party-into.html">Adding 3rd party HTML to your blog</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Why RSS / Subscribe to Posts is important to your blog</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/getting-started-with-feedburner.html">How to create a Feedburner feed for your blog</a>

Adding an RSS feed icon to your blog, using Feedburner

Feedburner's chicklets are used to add the standard "orange radar" button to your blog.  This lets readers to subscribe the RS...

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RSS feed reader options - the saga continues

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpyfkuXCw7u5i5XIDd4wzsZiqThLfodaOKjpjFrHY2o5sdiDrlQNb_FUNpY6pmoCa9mG9AX_tvLZfGWXk442ck_3cFwJeJNmvk9-SGOHnV4nZ59ymd9liXo3MGXGs0iUZNV0qozy3FKct/s454/rss-orange-radar-bar-chicklet-icon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpyfkuXCw7u5i5XIDd4wzsZiqThLfodaOKjpjFrHY2o5sdiDrlQNb_FUNpY6pmoCa9mG9AX_tvLZfGWXk442ck_3cFwJeJNmvk9-SGOHnV4nZ59ymd9liXo3MGXGs0iUZNV0qozy3FKct/s454/rss-orange-radar-bar-chicklet-icon.png" width="280" /></a></div>When Google Reader was retired, I posted about <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2013/06/choosing-replacement-for-google-reader.html">my search for a replacement</a>.<br /><br />Eventually I settled on <a href="http://www.theoldreader.com/" target="_blank">TheOldReader</a>.   This had a few headaches - too many other people made the same choice, so they had performance problems.  Then they were going to shut down.   They they got help and weren't shutting any more.   Now they've siaid that only the first 100 subscriptions are free, and that people need to pay to have more than this.   The design still looks a bit clunky.<br /><br />I may yet end up paying them $30/year - it's not unreasonable for the service.   But OTOH, I don't see paying a small amount for any service as a guarantee that it will actually survive.<br /><br />But in the meantime, I'm hunting for options again.    Here's some info about what I've tried.<br /><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><br /><h2>InoReader</h2>The first tool that has caught my eye is <b><a href="https://inoreader.com/" target="_blank">InoReader</a></b>.   It is<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">... a </span><a class="bluelink boldlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #0069d6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cloud based</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> </span><a class="bluelink boldlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #0069d6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">RSS Reader</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> aimed to fully replace </span><a class="bluelink boldlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_reader" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #0069d6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Reader</a> <span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">and even provide additional tools and functionalities for power users.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Initially it came to life as a </span><a class="bluelink boldlink" href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-reader-diaspora/3Koz-7SNdRk/xT4TgIsKxcYJ" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #0069d6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">proof of concept project</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">, but the author quickly realized that such system cannot be managed and handled by single person for a long time, so the development and support was handled to a company ...</span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span> You can register separately, or log in using Facebook or Google accounts. It will import subscription files from the reader part of Google's Takeout file, or other OPML format files.

RSS feed reader options - the saga continues

When Google Reader was retired, I posted about my search for a replacement . Eventually I settled on TheOldReader .   This had a few headach...

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The "follow by email" gadget: an easy way to add an email subscription to your blog

<b>Blogger have made it very simple to offer an email-subscription to your blog, with the "Follow by Email" gadget.  This article describes adding it to your blog, and how it works for your readers.</b> <br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4R6aDi9tDIV24EN16KGai1r6HUTk0c6UKwwvjjkfnqfBpGfPFw2w0z3foSDgxGke83eWXyWOrT-5EHciI3UH_lJqCA5EI8KnlGIMpYuv46f4WYZB_Q32Dm886eXP8MSDii1gnORPtfdWE/s446/blogger-follow-by-email-option-for-subscription.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4R6aDi9tDIV24EN16KGai1r6HUTk0c6UKwwvjjkfnqfBpGfPFw2w0z3foSDgxGke83eWXyWOrT-5EHciI3UH_lJqCA5EI8KnlGIMpYuv46f4WYZB_Q32Dm886eXP8MSDii1gnORPtfdWE/s320/blogger-follow-by-email-option-for-subscription.png" width="320" /></a></div>Previously, I've explained <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">why RSS is important for your blog</a>, and<a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-subscribe-by-email-option-using.html"> how to give your blog a subscribe by email option using Feedburner</a>.<br /><br />The Follow by Email gadget that Blogger provide makes this even easier:  you can add an email subscription option to your blog by following these steps:<br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>How to add the Follow by Email Gadget</h2><ol><li><b>Log in to Blogger</b><br />Use a Google account with admin rights to the blog, and which you want to use to get statistics about your email subscribers.</li><li>Go to the <b>Design</b> tab</li><li>Select <b>Add a Gadget</b> in the area where you want to put the email subscription option</li><li>Choose <b>Follow by Email</b> (it's current at the top of the list)</li><li><b>Enter the title</b> that you want displayed on your blog (initially it's "Follow by email")</li><li>Press <b>Save</b>.</li></ol>This puts the gadget onto your blog.  But there are two more things that you should do:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/12/turning-rss-feed-off-or-on-again.html"><b>Check </b>that your blog's RSS feed is enabled</a><b>: </b>it should be either "Full" or "Until Jump Break", not "None".  You <b>need</b> to do this because the Follow-by-email tool will only send out emails if your feed is turned on.   </li></ul><ul><li><b>Subscribe to it yourself</b>- by entering your own email.  <br />This isn't absolutely essential - the tool works even if you're not signed up to it.   But it's a <b>good idea</b> to try to see your blog from the reader's perspective.   <br />And some items in your posts (eg <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/picasa-blogger-part-4-putting-slideshow.html">slideshows</a> or <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/showing-powerpoint-presentation-in-your.html">PowerPoint presentations</a>) may not work as expected in the emailed version - and you won't know about it unless you're getting the emails.</li></ul><br /><h2>What your readers see:</h2><h3>On Your Blog:</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnVy2Hrz3ein2UsBkTriIKNH6dBUf3WpG2tl2avT_b7YxGEexUwYcJkK4gZTQk8Sx9-nKoQ2mZ7BypCYHz0jADW5gVQCZ3lnFxJrPJAp4FFu_jyZUYBcnEZMU1r3rYvfUzOmiegjMtHb8/" width="200" /> </a></div>The Follow by Email gadget looks like this:<br /><br />The title was set when you were adding the gadget:  you can change it by <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/03/adding-gadget-to-your-blog-using.html">editing the gadget</a> in the usual way.<br /><br />The background colour, button colour, title underline and font are based on <i><b>the settings for your theme</b></i>:  you can only control them by editing the gadget colours in your theme. <br /><br />You cannot put text immediately before our after the place where people can enter an email address:   though you could put a text-gadget before or after the Follow-by-email gadget. <br /><br /><br /><h3>When they enter an email address:</h3>When your visitor enters an email address and presses Submit, a new window opens:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8226995528209216388&postID=9190165755886234457" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 10px;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHFBvtlYHx9GzVHzH-UwHN1OS_C0BAtjlSDV-KVNgUXMplZi_NIVr_k3ubYDKpWKC25o1BZgwppznZ_X6PV_mfJz-T72fqH1lavHq2MBT3uX0r0Wu66A_-PTlbWM3lWLH2vOAUdMdJE_7M/" width="320" /></a></div><br />This window:<br /><ul><li><b>Welcomes</b> them to Feedburner</li><li>Acknowledges <b>their Google account</b>, if they are logged in at the time - remember, not all your visitors will be Google users</li><li><b>Tells them about the feed</b> that they are asking to subscribe to</li><li><b>Warns them that a confirmation message</b> will be sent to the email address they entered  <br /><i>"will receive a verification message once you submit this form"</i> and that <i>"FeedBurner activates your subscription to ... once you respond to this verification message"</i> </li><li>Asks them to <b>solve a text-catpcha</b> puzzle, to prove it's a real person (not a computer) setting up the subscription.</li></ul>The colours, design and content of this window are totally controlled by Feedburner.  You can't influence them in any way.<br /><br />After the anti-spam-test is successfully completed, a second screen opens.   This tells the reader that<br /><blockquote><b><i>Your request has been accepted!</i> </b><i>Please check your inbox for a verification message from “FeedBurner Email Subscriptions”, the service that delivers email subscriptions for <<your-blog-name>>. You will need to click a link listed in this message to activate your subscription. If you dont see a confirmation e-mail in a reasonable amount of time please check your bulk/spam folder.</i></blockquote>Again, you have no control over the color, format or placement of this window, it is totally up to Feedburner.    You also don't control the message text, which many people are likely to ignore.<br /><br /><br /><h3>In their email in-box, today:</h3>Your potential subscriber gets an email from Feedburner, usually within 2-10 minutes, asking them to click a link to complete the subscription process.<br /><ul><li>If they <b>click the link</b>, they become a verified subscriber.</li></ul><ul><li>If they <b>don't</b> click the link, then they stay on the subscribers list as <b>unverified</b>.</li></ul>You can <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/customising-feedburners-email.html">customize the "click the link to subscribe" message</a>, using some fairly simply settings in Feedburner.   <br /><br /><br /><h3>In their email in-box, when you post:</h3>On <b>days when you have posted</b> to your blog, every verified subscriber is sent one email message, with all your posts during the day.<br /><br />The message may include the full post or just a summary, depending on what settings you have for your blog's RSS feed  (Settings > Site Feed > Blog Posts feed).<br /><br />Feedburner provides a number of options for controling how this email looks, and when it is sent:  see the Publicize > Email Subscriptions > Email branding tab in Feedburner for these.    (full article coming soon).<br /><br /><br /><h2>More information about the gadget:</h2>This new gadget has been widely requested, and is an exciting addition to Blogger.  But there are some challenges with it, which are discussed in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/understanding-follow-by-email-gadget.html">Understanding the Follow-by-Email gadget</a>.<br /><br />You can get <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.ie/2011/01/getting-list-of-people-who-have-asked.html">a list of the people who have signed up to receive your blog-posts by email</a> - be aware that this is all people who have subscribed, not just ones who used the widget.<br /><br /><br /><h2>What happens if you delete the widget</h2>Even if the follow-by-email gadget is deleted from your blog (by accident or deliberately), the Feedburner subscription that it created, and the list of people who have subscribed, is still kept in Feedburner.<br /><br />However to add the gadget to your blog again, you need to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/adding-rss-feed-icon-to-your-blog-using.html">use Feedburner's gadget tool</a> to make sure that you access the feed that you created when you added the gadget the first time around.<br /><br />(Thanks to reader <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01573763482137647524" target="_blank">+Mary Bostow</a> whose question got me thinking about this.)<br /><br /><br /><br /><hr /><h2>Related Articles: </h2><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">Why RSS is important for your blog</a>,<br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.ie/2011/01/getting-list-of-people-who-have-asked.html">How to get a list of people who are subscribed to your blog by email</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-subscribe-by-email-option-using.html">An alternative to "Follow-by-email":  giving your blog a subscribe by email option using Feedburner</a>. <br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/03/customising-feedburners-email.html">Customizing Feedburners verification message</a>

The "follow by email" gadget: an easy way to add an email subscription to your blog

Blogger have made it very simple to offer an email-subscription to your blog, with the "Follow by Email" gadget.  This article des...

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Choosing a replacement for Google Reader

<b>This post tells the story of my choosing a replacement for Google reader.</b><br /><br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKsnIxPR8hRD3zlIROfwmIyhJ_XvHLK9DF9oaDCcCShNi5phygkHn4wXyz3efThL9uY33dd3cGvd4obYBcaSI8EjN1Munn7Ua9gtS99i0Xlkr7Yp35LP7tvpMdazq9an_VZATg2S2y2yt/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img alt="quick-tips logo" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKsnIxPR8hRD3zlIROfwmIyhJ_XvHLK9DF9oaDCcCShNi5phygkHn4wXyz3efThL9uY33dd3cGvd4obYBcaSI8EjN1Munn7Ua9gtS99i0Xlkr7Yp35LP7tvpMdazq9an_VZATg2S2y2yt/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" title="Quick tips for Blogger Users - especially about how Blogger works with other popular tools" width="200" /></a></div>Every so often, I do a post here on Blogger-HAT which is a little "different".<br /><br />Today, I'm starting the quest to choose a replacement for Google Reader (yes, the turn-off was announced back in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-2013-product-cancellations-from-google.html">March</a>, but there's no point in starting these things too soon - I expect that a few options have improved considerably since then.<br /><br />One way that this post is different is that I'm going to hit publish very soon, with the post just started not just finished.    So if you're a subscriber and want to see what I end up with, you might like to sign up on Facebook or somewhere, so you get a notification when I've finished.<br /><ul></ul>So let's get started:<br /><br />First stop:  google.com   [google reader replacement]<br />A cool 66-million results.   Yeah, I'll zip through those in no time.<br /><br />Scanning down the list, I don't recognise some of the top placegetters:<br /><br />The first three are from Google News.   No, don't want to check them - I want comparative reviews, no press-releases.<br /><br />A post from "howtogeek" - nah, I don't want to be a geek. <br /><br />One from "workflowing.net" - sounds like a sponsored listing, even though it's not.  But the summary does say "<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">Note: This post is a running list and will continue to be updated with new options and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span>" - let's take a look.   They have five options:<br />Feedly<br />Feedbin<br />Feed Wrangler<br />Fever<br /><br />Feedly is the only free one.   They're making the usual mutterings about "look what happened to the last free option" - but I remember Picnik:   it wasn't free, but it still got shut down.    So I'm not hung up about free = no control.<br /><br />Not enough to compare yet, need to check another list or two.<br /><br /><h2>6 June update:   </h2><br />Saw this comment on another site.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i> Looked atThe Old Reader - Clicked on the sign-in with Google and see that The Old Reader is requesting permission to: View and manage your Google Contacts - That's a NO<br />Looked at Feedly - Clicked on the Get Feedly for Chrome and it states it can Access your data on all websites and Access your tabs & browsing activity - That's a NO</i></blockquote><br />I'm not so fussed about whether something accesses my tabs and browsing activity - but I don't want a Chrome app:   I need something that works in whatever browser I happen to use, be it IE in the office or Firefox or Chrome at home.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><h2>12 June:</h2>I found a reference to Rolio somewhere.    Signed up - even though the screen looked rather bare and pale ( = trendy, but harder to read).   Then I subscribed to one feed, and got an email confirming that I'd subscribed.   Ahh ... no, that's going to get wayyy too painful.<br /><br /><br /><h2>16 June:</h2>I'm starting to get concerned about the number of de-recommendations I'm seeing.   There seem to be lots of reasons not to use tools, and no compelling replacement.<br /><br />So I decided to try The Old Reader. <br /><br />The bit about it wanting to access your Google Contacts may be true - but it's not necessary.    I decided to keep the two services separate, and signed up with a totally new account, no Google Contacts requests involved.<br /><br />It looked a bit odd to start with, but once I realized that it doesn't actually work with IE8, and switched to Chrome, it worked ok.   Personally I think the design is a little ugly - but the basics of Google Reader are there.   <br /><br />Reading their blog, it's still a very young product - three developers, now getting help from the wider community, but still working out a sustainable model for their product.    So it could start charging subscriptions (I'm not keen) or showing ads (doesn't worry me, provided they're not too intrusive) or get bought of by a large player (I'm guessing that won't be Google :-)  ), and I might be searching again.   But it's worth the risk for a while I think.<br /><br /><br /><h2>25 July Update</h2>I was quite happy - until the last few days when TheOldReader has been unavailable due to a hardware upgrade that went wrong.   It's back now, on Friday morning - but it's got me wondering when it might go down next.<br /><br />So I went looking for other web-browser based feed readers - and was disappointed in how few there seem to be.    One option I've tried is the Digg reader.  For this, I had to sign in with my Google account - though discovered upon later logins that it's possible to log in with either Facebook or Twitter, too.  It won't work with IE8, but is ok on Chrome.   It imported my Google Reader subscriptions ok.   The top-level interface is fine - although the list of feeds doesn't show which ones have new items in them.   The display of individual items in feeds is a little ugly, though. <br /><br />So at this stage, I'm not sure which option I'll stick with.<br /><br /></div><div><br /><h2>29 July</h2><br />It looks like the decision is being made for me:   I just logged in to The Old Reader, and say the following banner message at the top of the screen:<br /><br /><span style="background-color: #da3f2d; color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 13px;">We have disabled user registration at The Old Reader, and we might be making the website private. If we do, unfortunately your account will not be transferred to the private site, so you might want to export your subscriptions as OPML and start looking for an alternative solution. More details are in available in our blog: </span><a href="http://blog.theoldreader.com/" style="background-color: #da3f2d; color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 13px; outline: 0px;">http://blog.theoldreader.com</a><br /><br />Having read their blog-post:   the plan is to make the site private in two weeks time, unless someone else steps in with a way to make it work.<br /><br />Not a good week for me - a lot on at the day job.   So I won't be moving anywhere quickly ... but am definitely looking for alternative web-delivered, browser-agnostic RSS-reader options.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><h2>Criteria for choosing:</h2><div>The classic approach to choosing software is to determine your requirements, then evaluate options against how well they meet them.    But I've found it hard to distil my requirements.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bottom line - it must let import and let me read the RSS feeds I have now, and let me add new ones.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pretty important:</div><div>Not a stream:  I want to catch up with everything in each feed every so often - not just a stream of what's recent.</div><div>Must read RSS feeds - not tweets or other stuff.</div><div>Nice to have:</div><div>Browser independent</div><div>Used my Google account (maybe)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>

Choosing a replacement for Google Reader

This post tells the story of my choosing a replacement for Google reader. Every so often, I do a post here on Blogger-HAT which is a little ...

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A quick way to keep an eye on what is posted to interesting YouTube channels

<b>This quick-tip is about subscribing to a YouTube channel using an RSS feed-reader, like Google Reader</b><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKsnIxPR8hRD3zlIROfwmIyhJ_XvHLK9DF9oaDCcCShNi5phygkHn4wXyz3efThL9uY33dd3cGvd4obYBcaSI8EjN1Munn7Ua9gtS99i0Xlkr7Yp35LP7tvpMdazq9an_VZATg2S2y2yt/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img alt="quick-tips logo" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoKsnIxPR8hRD3zlIROfwmIyhJ_XvHLK9DF9oaDCcCShNi5phygkHn4wXyz3efThL9uY33dd3cGvd4obYBcaSI8EjN1Munn7Ua9gtS99i0Xlkr7Yp35LP7tvpMdazq9an_VZATg2S2y2yt/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" title="Quick tips for Blogger Users - especially about how Blogger works with other popular tools" width="200" /></a></div>Most <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/04/blogs-blogger-bloggers-posts-pages-and.html">bloggers</a> know about other blogs and websites in their niche that they want to keep an eye on, to either know what's going on, or as inspiration for their own posts.<br /><br />Previously I've explained that <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">RSS was invented to make this simpler</a>: you can get a summary of changes on all interesting websites in the one place (called a feed-reader), rather than having to regularly visit each site individually.<br /><br />Video is increasingly popular: many bloggers are putting videos in their posts or their posts into videos, and some have even abandoned their blogs and are only publishing new content to a YouTube channel. <br /><br />I've just found that it's very easy to subscribe to a YouTube user or channel in RSS / Google reader, meaning you can see a list of new videos from you reader, without having to go to the channel in YouTube.<br /><br />Follow these steps:<br /><ul><li><b>Find</b> the channel or person you want to subscribe to in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a></li></ul><ul><li><b>Right-click</b> on their name or icon, and <b>copy the URL</b> / web-address / link location (the precise name depends on the browser you are using - you want the place that clicking the link takes you to, not the location of the image-file used to make the link)</li></ul><ul><li>Go into your feed-reader, and subscribe to that link (in Google Reader, this is done using a red button near top left corner of the screen labelled "subscribe" - just click it, paste in the link and click the Add button).</li></ul><br />The link will be something like   <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">http://www.youtube.com/user/MariahIsTheQueen  or http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX9_dIohJBxlizx14AozTng</blockquote>If it has something else after the name (eg   ?feature=watch), then <b>delete that part before you subscribe</b>  you just need a link saying whether it points to a user or channel, and the name of that user channel.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD1R0YSY-a8yDv9Y2YwALPABMXV4ilX1MTEdW8vUlFvUuPStQQEwV0rGd8d866sP1qsHCPtXWmjTkh6kJRvalDJ5Ej7EekPMhOzOrg_NhxZdwXGgnDfwlRqmrnKZnm93a5httmdGvaHOF/s567/youtube-get-updates-in-rss-reader-channel-or-account.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD1R0YSY-a8yDv9Y2YwALPABMXV4ilX1MTEdW8vUlFvUuPStQQEwV0rGd8d866sP1qsHCPtXWmjTkh6kJRvalDJ5Ej7EekPMhOzOrg_NhxZdwXGgnDfwlRqmrnKZnm93a5httmdGvaHOF/s640/youtube-get-updates-in-rss-reader-channel-or-account.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Example of subscribing to a channel about rocket-science in YouTube</b></td></tr></tbody></table>

A quick way to keep an eye on what is posted to interesting YouTube channels

This quick-tip is about subscribing to a YouTube channel using an RSS feed-reader, like Google Reader Most bloggers  know about other blogs ...

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