Feeds

RSS and Competitive Intelligence

Bill Gratsch — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:06:55 GMT

Dennis Kennedy's column in the March edition of the ABA Journal, Really Simple Competitive Intelligence, offers an interesting, quick read on using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for competitive intelligence purposes.

Especially useful is that Mr. Kennedy highlights free options readily available to the average lawyer and explains them in layman's terms:

While sophisticated, expensive and impressive CI tools are available, let’s look at two free tools that will give you a good taste of what CI is and how it can help you. Both tools fall into the category of alerts.

The first tool is e-mail alerts. An e-mail alert is like a customized e-mail newsletter on the subject of your choice...
...If your e-mail inbox is already overflowing from other sources, then you will want to experiment with another type of free alert tool known as an RSS feed. RSS stands for really simple syndication, but all you need to know is how it can work for you. RSS feeds are a way to have items from frequently updated sites (like blogs) delivered to you without the need for visiting those sites individually.
You subscribe to RSS feeds (sometimes called news feeds) and you read them in a news reader. For our purposes, let’s use the free Google Reader to illustrate news readers and RSS.

Good stuff.

You can read the above snippet in context (along with Mr. Kennedy's column in its entirety) by clicking here: Really Simple Competitive Intelligence

He also mentions the subject in a recent post on his weblog, Really Simple Competitive Intelligence.

What's RSS? This Video Will Help Explain

Bill Gratsch — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:46:04 GMT

Whether you want to call it Really Simply Syndication or something else entirely (always seems to depend on who you talk to), RSS plays a powerful role in disseminating blawg content. In the long run, the marketers and strategists who helped craft the message for technology companies may simply do away with the term altogether, replacing it with Feeds or something less 'techy.' Yet, regardless of the ultimate name affixed to the technology, the processes behind it will be the same. And, it never hurts to better understand those processes.

With that in mind, I wanted to point out this new video clip, Practical RSS [Show #1]: An Introduction To RSS. According to its producers, "[t]his is the first episode in the series 'Practical RSS.' It introduces RSS conceptually, discusses tools for accessing it, and walks through a basic use case with it." It's is a quick watch (about seven minutes) and not overly technical, so you might want to check it out.

Thanks to Brad Feld [ Learning About RSS ] and Fred Wilson [ How To Video ] for the heads up.

Feedburner Talks Feed Subscriptions

Bill Gratsch — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:54:13 GMT

Ever look at the number of subscribers to your feed and wonder just why the numbers seem to bounce up and down each day?

I know I did. So I went to the source, Feedburner in my case, and read up a little bit on the subject.

The best way to describe feed subscription trends is that they are feisty. Some days your numbers are up, some days (like weekends), they can dip down. This is all normal behavior (read more about why feeds behave the way they do in our TechCrunch case study). From the Feedburner blog, Burning Questions, post The Numbers - They Go Down, They Go Up

The Techcrunch case study referenced above is highlighted in an earlier post from last September, A Peek Inside TechCrunch's 100k Subscriber Milestone. Now, 100,000 subscribers may not be in the realm of possibility for many of us (100,000 subscribers is significantly more than many magazines!), but the post is really about much more than that. Beyond laying out the whys and hows of TechCrunch's growth, the post thoroughly covers feeds and feed subscriptions (at least through the eyes of Feedburner).

For example, are you aware of a metric called "Reach?" While the subscriber number is a measure of how many people have opted in to receive a feed, "Reach" is the total number of people who have taken action — viewed or clicked — on the content in a feed. Peek Inside TechCrunch's 100k Subscriber Milestone.

Also, what about "Uncommon Uses?" Once content is out there, in distribution land, it can be really tough to keep track of where it's being picked up and resyndicated. FeedBurner helps TechCrunch identify “Uncommon Uses” of feed content. In other words, the places where TechCrunch content shows up beyond the aggregators and feed readers that we've catalogued. These references could be other TechCrunch sites, news filters for specific niche content, a blog assembled from feeds, or even spam blogs. Peek Inside TechCrunch's 100k Subscriber Milestone.

These are just a couple of the factoids covered. The posts highlighted above, and the Burning Questions blog itself, offer a lot more detail on the subjects of feeds and subscriptions. If these topics interest you, the posts and blog noted above are recommended reading.

An FYI. Blawg's Feed Address is Changing...

Bill Gratsch — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:35:02 GMT

When I started posting here at Blawg back in January of 2003, I used the default RSS feed that came "out of the box." Since that time, I have tried a few different RSS feed options, including Feedburner, which I have ultimately settled on as my current feed service of choice.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Blawg will be unveiling a new look and a variety of new features and functions in the coming weeks. As part of this, I am settling on a single RSS feed for the Blawg Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blawg You can subscribe to this feed by cutting and pasting that URL into your favorite feed reader or by simply clicking here.

Thanks and please check back soon to see the new Blawg.

My Semi-Annual Reminder: Don't Forget Your Feed!

Bill Gratsch — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:00:00 GMT

As I add in more and more blawgs over the course of a year, occasionally I run into a streak where a number of new additions don"t offer a feed. And, I then feel compelled to write a short post admonishing anyone and everyone who has a blawg to make sure they include one.

Why? Mainly, because very few readers of blawg content tell me they spend hours a day bouncing around from blawg to blawg. Instead they simply subscribe to blawgs they find interesting or valuable. After subscribing, the content comes to them (via Outlook, via their Blackberry, etc.). And, that is how they prefer it. Note that they may click through a particularly interesting post to your actual blawg site, but that is much different than taking the time to visit your site each day in hopes of finding something interesting.

Moreover, it is much easier to spread your content webwide if it can be pulled/aggregated/disseminated via a news feed (typically in RSS, RDF, Atom). And, it seems logical to assume that is what you hope happens to your blawg content. The more people who see your content, the more people who may subscribe, the more people who may be interested in seeking your counsel.

So, make it easy on your potential audience. Give them a feed.

By the way, most of the commercial weblog software automatically create a feed for you. You may just have to look for it in your software"s control panel to "turn it on." Also, you can visit a feed service like Feedburner to find out more or to "burn" your own unique feed while adding useful features like subscriber counting.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email, I will be happy to try and assist.

LexisNexis Mealey's via RSS

Bill Gratsch — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:53:54 GMT

As the site itself reports, "LexisNexis Mealey"s now makes our top headlines available via an RSS feed. Review the list of available channels below. Simply add one or more channels to your RSS reader to stay updated on the latest legal news throughout the day."

I have not heard much yet as to quality and value of the Mealey"s feeds, but there are quite a few filtered channels. There is also a podcast feed available. Finally, Mealey"s is offering an OPML feed of many of the feeds, so you can quickly import all of them at once.

Links: Mealey"s RSS Feeds

Mealey"s OPML

Westlaw Watch Integrating RSS

Bill Gratsch — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:46:51 GMT

Taking a look at Thomson"s Westlaw Watch service, you can see that it is now offering an RSS version of the content normally aggregated and sent via email. While RSS appears on the site, it does not appear to be promoted to much effect. Most likely because we have still not reached critical mass with regard to the number of lawyers who have an RSS Reader. The numbers are still relatively low.

But, that is also clearly changing, and it appears that Thomson-West is gearing up.

Blogger, Blogspot Users...Don't Forget Your Feed

Bill Gratsch — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:00:00 GMT

I have touched on this subject in the past and continue to notice it as more and more people join the blawgosphere: blawgs with no feed. I can"t say enough that if you are starting a blawg you really must have a feed available so that people can subscribe to your site.

Most, if not all, weblog editing software have an automatic feed creation option. I think what is happening is that people are just getting used to the software and may not realize it is there. I have particularly noticed the lack of feeds in blawgs created using Blogger and hosted on Blogspot.

I haven"t used that combination of products in some time, so I can"t say why this is occurring, but it must be difficult to find the "turn on the feed" option with these. Interestingly enough, if you just add the following to the end of your site"s URL, you will see that your feed is already being created for you.

http://yoursitename.blogspot.com/atom.xml

I think your feed is already "live." You just need to let the world know.

Goodbye to RSS 0.91

Bill Gratsch — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:12:53 GMT

Thanks to a welcome heads up from Gene Gosewehr, the Director of Information Technology at the State Bar of Wisconsin, I realized last week that it was time to upgrade the feed from Blawg to RSS 2.0.

Why? Because Microsoft's new Internet Explorer, version 7 (IE 7), has a whole host of new RSS subscribe and read features--but they don't seem to work with RSS version .91, which is what I had been limping along with for sometime. Solution? I upgraded my feed to RSS 2.0, and Blawg was immediately back in the good graces of IE 7.

Candidly, for most blawgers out there, this item won't be a worry. Your weblog editing software probably is already using RSS 2.0 (or Atom) and will work fine with IE. If it doesn't today, most likely it will tomorrow. IE 7 is still in beta and I would be very surprised if all of the companies providing weblog products and services are not in compliance with it by the time it goes "live."

But, for those who, like me, have been using an editor and feed that is out of the mainstream, take note of the need for an upgrade.

Get Ready for New Orange Feed Icons!

Bill Gratsch — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 10:00:00 GMT

Okay, it really isn't that exciting. But, I thought it worth mentioning that you will start to see more and more of this new little icon:

You might ask why, and the short answer is because Microsoft is behind it (well, at least partially). The slightly longer answer is that Microsoft developers and Firefox developers starting looking for a standardized replacement to the wide variety of RSS, XML, Atom and RDF icons that are being used across the web. Believe it or not, the two groups apparently worked together on this issue and after looking at a number of possibilities, they chose the symbol noted above. And, from all accounts, the next version of Outlook will also be using this symbol (in the future, you may well find yourself reading feeds from Outlook).

So, that is that. If you want to read more, you can check this link to a site I occasionally update with stuff just like this.