BYTE MARKS
Link makes it simple to syndicate a blog
By Burt Lum
The blog is a wonderfully enabling tool. It's information from the source, without any middlemen or brokers. It's information for the people, provided by the people.
This sort of tool has broad social impact. If a presidential candidate such as Howard Dean can launch a campaign from the Internet with a blog, www.blogforamerica.com, it enhances its tangible redeeming qualities.
While exploring the functionality of my own blog on Hawaii Stories, www.hawaiistories.com, I started to take notice of this little button tucked away in the corner of the page, called RSS. When asked what it means, some of my software friends would reply in a matter-of-fact manner, "Oh, that's for syndication."
Hmm. Thanks.
The question continued to gnaw at me.
So with a bit of determined digging, this is what I found out: RSS means "real simple syndication." There may have been other meanings, but this is the one that stuck. The RSS link allows a site to be syndicated onto other sites, much like a column in a newspaper may be syndicated in other newspapers.
But the more important question is, how does it work? This question opens the door into the technology of blogging software. In this area you will find things such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) staring you in the face. For the sake of simplicity, let's just look through the window.
The RSS link — sometimes referred to as XML, RDF or plain "Syndicate This Site" — will point to a URL. If you take this link and properly embed it into the html code of your Web site, you can display the contents of the originating site.
You have, in essence, syndicated that blog content and created a newsfeed onto your site.
To easily create the proper display code, go to www.infinitepenguins.net/rss/. Paste the RSS link into the form, and Infinite Penguins will generate the proper html code. All you need to do now is cut and paste that code into your Web site. It's a quick and easy way to keep track of the latest updates to your favorite blog. ;-)
Reach Burt Lum through www.brouhaha.net.
