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Check That Feed

Thursday, 20 December 2007, 6:21

I manage to read through about 300 RSS feeds a day. No – not all at once you nut, but throughout the day. Google Reader keeps me attached to my favorite blogs, news, and entertainment sites. I can get to my list at work and via my Blackberry. So it stands to reason it is going to take me a few days to figure out someone hasn’t posted in a while.

Google Reader has an area where you can see your Reading and Subscription Trends. Under the Subscription Trends is a tab for Inactive Feeds. Here you can see when the last time a feed was updated and how long ago; with the oldest at the top of the list.

When a lightbulb goes off that I haven’t seen a feed from someone in a while, I go there to see how long its been. Happened last week in fact.

I went over to the missing site and found a whole theme redesign. After finding the RSS link, I compared the URL to the one I had in Google Reader and they were different. Updating Google Reader brought that blog back into my reading fold.

But wait a minute — 300 feeds and *I* have to keep up with them? No – don’t think so. If you want people to come visit you via your RSS feed, the blog owner needs to make sure that the sidewalk is shoveled, not the visitor.

I use FeedBurner so no matter how many times I may change the theme, the feed will always remain the same. No worry about lost friends in a snow storm of RSS feeds.

Check Your Feed URL folks … or you could be lost out in the woods and no way to be found!

Category : Blogging | Tags : , ,

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8 Comments for “Check That Feed”

  1. 1Redoubt

    wrote on 20 December 2007 at 8:39

    Thanks for that heads up. I had no idea… really.

    Feedburner, huh? I’ll have a look.

  2. 2William Teach

    wrote on 20 December 2007 at 9:26

    I’ve noticed that happens when people change their themes, too. Best thing is for bloggers to make a copy of their feed html from their headers, and past it in to every new theme.

  3. 3Jo

    wrote on 20 December 2007 at 13:06

    I’m having problems with one blog that changes their theme as the sun rises and sets and I’m about to remove them altogether if they can’t keep their feed consistant.

  4. 4c.a. Marks

    wrote on 20 December 2007 at 13:27

    Thanks for reminding me that I need to go in and clean out my Google Reader!

  5. 5cao

    wrote on 21 December 2007 at 16:42

    Was it me? I hope not.

  6. 6Jo

    wrote on 21 December 2007 at 18:39

    cao, I have had issues with your feed and others.

  7. 7Cao

    wrote on 23 December 2007 at 17:36

    Darn. I’ll try to fix that; I was hoping I could leave the Christmas theme up for a little bit…but I’ll check and make sure everything shows on the front page.

  8. 8Cao

    wrote on 23 December 2007 at 17:39

    ooh I like that bookmark thing! I’m going to see if I can get one.