Blogger Magic - Verifying A Blog Feed URL

It's a fairly simple matter to determine the newsfeed URL, for any given blog, by examining the blog template code.

Besides the base feed, a blog may publish an extensive array of additional feeds, which won't be listed directly in the blog template code. You may use any given feed, in networking your blog, with any Google or non Google service.

Starting with any feed URL, what do I do? I could just open my favourite feed reader, or social networking web site, and paste the URL in place. But what if the feed reader or web site wasn't working properly, or I misunderstood the instructions? What if I see

Invalid URL

or the like, what do I do?

The smart thing to do, before you setup a FeedBurner feed or any complementary non Blogger service, is to test the feed.

Many modern browsers (Firefox or Internet Explorer, for instance) will give you a formatted display, when you are loading a feed URL.

This blog is The Real Blogger Status http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/.

This blog has 4 site posts feeds.

• Atom (classic): http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/atom.xml.
• RSS (classic): http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/rss.xml.
• Atom (new): http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default.
• RSS (new): http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/
feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
displayed by Firefox



http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/
feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
displayed by Internet Explorer



Besides the blog posts feed (in the many aliases), each individual post may publish a comments feed. And the blog, using a number of labels, may publish a number of label feeds. Any properly formatted feed URL, referencing a published feed, will likewise produce a formatted feed display - in a browser which formats feeds.

Here we see a known oddity with Chrome, which does not, natively, render a feed as a formatted display with Subscription options. To do this with Chrome, you (or your readers) have to install an add-on accessory. As an alternative, use a FeedBurner subscription gadget.

Click on the above feed link, for instance, and the browser should inform you, explicitly, that you're viewing a feed. If you load what you think is your feed URL into your browser, and you don't see a similar display, recheck your URL.

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