Yahoo, Blog Search, RSS, Subscribe.
Myself and Tom R were just discussing Yahoo's 'blog search'. I have it in inverted comments because it is actually Yahoo's news search, which now happens to display results for blogs on the right hand side of the page.
As Tom already pointed out, it is a pretty odd place for them - especially as many Google users are used to that spot being reserved for paid-for results.
It's a Beta, so let's hope for some improvements in the near future - but not only are they on the right hand side, but why are they only in news? Or why in news at all? Why not in the general search area?
Another issue, both Tom and Robert Scoble point out, is the poor search results this 'blog search' returns. But again, I hope this is due to a rushed launch or some such and will improve.
However, in my opinion they get one obvious thing almost right. In the blog results you get:
It is the Yahoo features I think are of most note here. Each result has a link to subscribe to the blog's RSS feed. Fantastic. It's a pity it's tied only to 'My Yahoo' but that's hardly surprising.
Imagine a world where you do a search on Google and when a result has a feed associated with it a 'subscribe' option is given for that result. This subscribe button, when clicked, would add the feed to your own OPML file (or some such solution) which in turn would result in that feed being added to any and all feed readers you happened to use, desktop or web based.
I'm tired of having to do so many different things to manage so many third party solutions. I'm tired of having to consider putting hundreds of little buttons on my blogs ('subscribe using this', 'subscribe using that') - surely it's not necessary?
I realise Yahoo WANT to have, if possible, a little button with their brand on it on as many sites as possible - but if all RSS subscription buttons resulted in the same predictable and easy to use actions the uptake on RSS would most likely improve massively. According to Yahoo's white paper on RSS:
I believe it makes sense to drive forward towards a solution where RSS feeds can be managed without major technical know how on the part of the content publisher or the common or garden variety end user.
Tom R tells me that Microsoft are headed this way with their developments in Windows... perhaps he will give us some links to explain further... :)
I just hope Microsoft don't just make this yet another third party solution (albeit a better one) but that they encourage and nurture a new standard.
If you have been reading my blog (which is unlikely, I know) you will realise this post springs from, and owes a lot to Dave Winer's post on Subscribe which I wrote about previously quite a bit as I figured out how best to present my feeds..
As Tom already pointed out, it is a pretty odd place for them - especially as many Google users are used to that spot being reserved for paid-for results.
It's a Beta, so let's hope for some improvements in the near future - but not only are they on the right hand side, but why are they only in news? Or why in news at all? Why not in the general search area?
Another issue, both Tom and Robert Scoble point out, is the poor search results this 'blog search' returns. But again, I hope this is due to a rushed launch or some such and will improve.
However, in my opinion they get one obvious thing almost right. In the blog results you get:
- Post name
- blog name
- date posted
- snippet of post
- 'my yahoo' features: 'add to my yahoo' and 'save'
It is the Yahoo features I think are of most note here. Each result has a link to subscribe to the blog's RSS feed. Fantastic. It's a pity it's tied only to 'My Yahoo' but that's hardly surprising.
Imagine a world where you do a search on Google and when a result has a feed associated with it a 'subscribe' option is given for that result. This subscribe button, when clicked, would add the feed to your own OPML file (or some such solution) which in turn would result in that feed being added to any and all feed readers you happened to use, desktop or web based.
I'm tired of having to do so many different things to manage so many third party solutions. I'm tired of having to consider putting hundreds of little buttons on my blogs ('subscribe using this', 'subscribe using that') - surely it's not necessary?
I realise Yahoo WANT to have, if possible, a little button with their brand on it on as many sites as possible - but if all RSS subscription buttons resulted in the same predictable and easy to use actions the uptake on RSS would most likely improve massively. According to Yahoo's white paper on RSS:
Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS.
I believe it makes sense to drive forward towards a solution where RSS feeds can be managed without major technical know how on the part of the content publisher or the common or garden variety end user.
Tom R tells me that Microsoft are headed this way with their developments in Windows... perhaps he will give us some links to explain further... :)
I just hope Microsoft don't just make this yet another third party solution (albeit a better one) but that they encourage and nurture a new standard.
If you have been reading my blog (which is unlikely, I know) you will realise this post springs from, and owes a lot to Dave Winer's post on Subscribe which I wrote about previously quite a bit as I figured out how best to present my feeds..
4 Comments:
Frank,
I'm hurt you don't know all the posts on my site by heart ;-)
I was of course referring to this post when I mentioned Microsoft's developments in the RSS arena.
Thanks Tom, that's what I was looking for alright!
It'd be nice of course if there was a way to do this cross platform... no idea how of course, just musing.
Not much good to you if Windows allows me to subscribe with an easy single click seeing as you're on a mac...!
What you are forgetting Frank is that OS X will have another version release before the next version of Windows is released. So, in all liklihood, I'll have it on my Mac before Windows has it!
Well, that's ok by me as long as I don't have to put two subscribe buttons on my site - one for pc and one for mac. I hope they both manage it the same way...
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