Generating Your Own RSS Feeds

You probably bump up against RSS (Really Simple Syndication) all the time and don't even know it. Many of your web sites you already use offer RSS feeds. Learn how to use the RSS feeds generated by Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, WordPress, and more.

Look at the HTML for this page to see how I embedded the most current item from my blog's RSS feed into this web page. Update the blog, update the feed. Update the feed, update this page.

Twitter generates an RSS feed of your tweets. Right-click the RSS icon on the right side of your Twitter page and copy the URL. Twitter talks about their feeds. Your user ID and RSS feeds are discussed on this page. The RSS feed for JetCityOrange's Twitter account is http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/17123279.rss Don't delay, use them today!

YouTube generates RSS feeds based on users and tags. Your default YouTube RSS feed is:
  www.youtube.com/rss/user/[username]/videos.rss

To get your most recent videos:
  gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/[username]/uploads?orderby=updated

For example, this is the JetCityOrange YouTube feed:
  www.youtube.com/rss/user/JetCityOrange/videos.rss

YouTube has a page about RSS. Make your own YouTube RSS feeds using all kinds of parameters with this YouTube RSS online generator. No fuss, no muss.

The JetCityOrange YouTube RSS feed URL is: gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/JetCityOrange/uploads. Replace "JetCityOrange" with your YouTube user name.

Facebook generates all types of RSS feeds for you. Generate multiple feeds based on photostreams, sets, favorites, group pools, group discussions, recent activity, tags, etc. Right-click the RSS icon on any page and copy the feed URL. Flickr has an overview of RSS feeds as well as a more detailed explanation.

Use Flickr as a free photo news service in the cloud. Imagine one or more people uploading photos under a shared Flickr account or belong to a group. A group can publish photo feeds to subscribers. Cell phone photos get global distribution.

The JetCityOrange Flickr RSS feed is: api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=86435489@N00&tags=rsstag&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

Flickr RSS feeds & ASP  •  Flickr RSS feeds & WordPress
Flickr RSS feed using ColdFusion  •  Flickrbits

Use Picasa? Don't feel left out. You can create RSS feeds from Picasa too. An RSS feed like this can be used to power a screensaver.

If you use the Google Photos Screensaver you can feed it an RSS feed. Can you say "syndication"?

If you have a blog hosted by Blogger, you already have an RSS feed. Note: Blogger generates both Atom and RSS 2.0. Read about the options to make sure you create the one you want.

The default Blogger RSS feed is:
  yourSite.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Therefore my blog's RSS feed is:
  JetCityOrange.blogspot.com/atom.xml
  JetCityOrange.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

Select the Site Feed tab within Blogger to configure the Atom feed that Blogger generates. If you don't use the raw URL above, your feed goes through FeedBurner. Not a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

WordPress blogs generate an RSS feed too. The default WordPress RSS URL is:
  yourSite.blogspot.com/feed

WordPress documents their RSS options really well. WordPress has a feed template that supports RSS 2.0, wp-rss2.php

Create an Atom feed of your last 20 Gmail messages using this URL:
https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom

Create a feed of your unread Gmail messages:
http://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom/unread/

You can also use RSS with Gmail too: http://www.yourGmailName.com/gmail

You'll be prompted for your username and password. Note: Gmail supports HTTPS for added security.

One of my favorites is an RSS feed of your Google Web History: www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=10

1. My calendars

2. Calendar settings

3. Calendar Details

4. Click the XML icon to copy the associated URL.

BlipTV & RSS
  http://[accountname].blip.tv/?skin=rss

Daily Motion & RSS
  http://www.dailymotion.com/rss/[accountname]

Revver & RSS
  http://api.revver.com/rss/user/[accountname]

Vimeo & RSS
  http://www.vimeo.com/user:[accountname]/clips/rss

Google Video & RSS
  http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=[keyword]&output=rss

If you know of any other RSS tips or tricks, please let me know so I can a.) post them here and b.) give you credit. Thanks!

© 2010 Jerry Whiting. All rights reserved.   JetCityOrange at gmail dot com