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(via -
Gizmodo )
I read it on 02/08/10 at 10:38 AM
Posted on 02/08/10 at 03:06 PM
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(via -
Croncast - Life is Show Prep )
I read it on 08/19/09 at 09:46 AM
Posted on 08/18/09 at 04:02 PM
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In the my previous post at Palegroove, "Improving your SEO with RSS in 3 easy steps," I shared some insight about how to setup your RSS feed URL's so that they are search engine friendly. After reading the post again, well, I missed explaining why search spiders like feeds so much. The answer is structured data.
PC Magazine defines structured data as, "Data that resides in fixed fields within a record or file. Relational databases and spreadsheets are examples of structured data. Contrast with unstructured data." I'm sure a future revised version will include XML or RSS ;-).
When your content is placed into feeds it has the benefit of being described by a template - structured data. It is described by elements in the feed the same as mine, CNN.com, Apple, Microsoft or anyone else with a RSS feed. RSS is the ubiquitous, defacto standard for syndication. The simplicity of RSS as a standard to describe your content's title, description, dates, content, enclosures, etc makes it a magic API for search engines, developers and database administrators. Your website doesn't do this. It is full of unstructured data.
On your site the post titles could be in a h1-6 tag, div or a legacy table cell with a style applied to it. This makes it harder for search engines to understand your content. Sure, there are insanely engineered algorithms that are in place to create associations between the content on your site and the code that is used to display it, but RSS makes it uniform and much easier for search companies to cache, categorize, rank and re-syndicate your ideas. The primary reason is that the feed describes the data types instead ot telling a browser how to display it.
So, like I said in the last post, "Treat your feeds with the same care that you do your pages," with the caveat that maybe you need to treat them better because the next iteration of the web is being built on structured data.
Tags: RSS SEO   structured data feeds seo
Tags: data   rss structured search post
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(via -
Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac )
I read it on 05/24/09 at 07:26 PM
Posted on 05/23/09 at 03:05 PM
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I am trying to be cute here. After testing out the Google Reader Bundle feature yesterday I came to the quick conclusion that it is a step in the right direction but closer to a bale of hay than a bundle of flowers.
Do you know what goes into a bale of hay? I learned in my years of small town living . . . a 100 plus pounds of unorganized hay and two brown pieces of twine. They're heavy as hell to lift from the bailer, the machine that scrapes up the hay from the field, and only those with the patience to wear long sleeves, jeans and gloves in 90 degree heat are allowed the privilege of participating while they are fresh.
Google Reader's Bundle feature has more similarities to this analogy than I would care to admit. And, yes, when I demoed it I made sure to put on a flannel shirt, Lee jeans and some mittens - the closest thing I now own to leather workman's gloves.
So, here's what I've got for you - there's plenty of room for improvement.
People don't want whole feeds combined to make one massive feed filled with content from the highest level filter that exists, publishers. Well, maybe they do if that is all that you offer. Granular access to content isn't the Holy Grail or what is next . . . it is simply how it should be.
And besides, there have been utilities to combine feeds like this for years. Do you know any of these product names beyond Yahoo Pipes? Remembering Pipes is easy because the last time you used it you told yourself you would never do it again.
A Google Reader Bundle has a web page and a feed . . . an Atom feed, not an RSS feed. Enough said here, it needs a RSS feed. The Atom feed itself is missing critical meta data like title, description, pub date, source, feed item origin, publisher, etc.
As a publisher, my concerns about this initial release of the bundle feature are the missing RSS feed and the lack of associated meta data for the content that makes the bundle. Which begs the next question of what metric is available to know how much additional syndication my content is getting once it has entered the Google Reader Bundle ecosystem? Currently there isn't one that is publicly available and I would venture to say that not for a very long time, if ever, there will be one offered.
With some more work Google can bring new features and hopefully a full set of tools that users and publishers can both use. But in this current state it is still in an insular silo of Google user nerdom. Yes, it still is a walled garden of content, of sharing and privileged consumption. It is a bale of hay.
Tags: Google Reader Bundle RSS feeds bale of hay Atom feeds 
Tags: bundle feed google hay reader
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(via -
Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac )
I read it on 05/18/09 at 04:30 PM
Posted on 05/15/09 at 05:12 PM
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Your whole family will love this 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home located at 113 Ardley Court in Naperville. It is located in River Oaks, a great small family oriented subdivision with HOA fees that are less than $30 per year. The subdivision has lots of kids activities throughout the year including an Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Party and Block Party which is a blast for the whole family.
When we were looking to buy a home we wanted a home that didn't back to a busy street, water, electrical lines or any other hazard for our small children. This home is perfect, located on a cul de sac where the neighborhood kids all play out after school and it has a big fenced in yard with HUGE freshly stained deck and wooden swing set. It even has a great basketball hoop on the driveway.
It is located in Naperville School District 203. The elementary school, Kingsley is just one block away and has been a great school for our kids. The middle school is Lincoln and the High School is Naperville Central.
The home is in excellent condition with an open floor plan and brand new carpeting throughout.
To see this lovely home at 113 Ardley Court Naperville, IL 60565 please call Betsy or Kris at 630.369.3104. |
| See it on a map! |
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FIRST FLOOR
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KITCHEN
The kitchen has laminate flooring, granite countertops, undermount sink, black 2008 Bosch dishwasher, built in microwave. Other appliances are negotiable. The back door is new and several of the light fixtures are new as well. There is a large eat in area with bay window and door to back yard. |
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FAMILY ROOM
The family room is open to the kitchen and features newer paint, vaulted ceilings, skylights and gas fireplace. |
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DINING ROOM
There is a spacious dining room off of the kitchen which is large enough for a dining table, hutch and sideboard. The beautiful light fixture is new and the room has been freshly painted. It has new carpeting. |
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LIVING ROOM
The living room opens to the dining room and has new carpeting as well, the bay window faces the front yard. |
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BATHROOM
There is a half bath on the first floor that features new light fixture and mirror. |
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ENTRY
Ceramic tile floor in entry hall. Open oak staircase leads to the second floor. |
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SECOND FLOOR
It features 4 large bedrooms. The master bedroom has his & her closets as well as a bathroom with jacuzzi tub and separate shower. The other bedrooms have large closets. There is also a full bathroom off the upstairs hall. All bedrooms and the stairs have brand new carpet. |
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BASEMENT
The stairs to the basement have also been freshly carpeted. There is a large finished basement with laminate flooring. There is also a large storage area and additional cement floored crawl space. |
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| MECHANICALS/ROOF
Roof:New in 2004
Furnace: New in 2004
Air Conditioner: New in 2005
Quick close OK, we are relocating. |
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| To see this lovely home at 113 Ardley Court Naperville, IL 60565 please call Betsy or Kris at 630.369.3104. |
Tags: FSBO Naperville For Sale By Owner District 203 Naperville 4bd Naperville
Tags: naperville room school home large
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(via -
Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac )
I read it on 05/18/09 at 04:30 PM
Posted on 04/24/09 at 02:18 PM
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It's been quite a while since I wrote a blog post and it was time to get down with the reality that some things can't be said in 140 characters or less.
Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.
I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.
Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.
First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.
Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.
How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.
In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.
Here's how it goes down:
1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo
What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery
Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!
Tags: flickr live photo blogging RSS as API seesmic tumblr twitter
Tags: flickr rss photo blog feed
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You hear the 9.7-inch iPad has a screen resolution of 1024x768, and you think to yourself, that's not so bad! And it's not. But when you later hear that a new 4-inch smartphone will feature a resolution of 1280x1024, well...
