Atom Vs RSS - Choose One, Using FeedBurner

Occasionally, we see a blog owner in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, asking about newsfeed formats.

Which is better, for my readers - Atom or RSS? How do I choose, what to provide, in my blog?

The competing newsfeed formats - Atom and RSS - have been a part of Internet life, for many years. Both formats have their devotees - and this is why there are two formats.

Both formats have their own advantages - and disadvantages.

You can change the URL of a FeedBurner source feed, to select Atom or RSS feed formats, from your blog.

You can use FeedBurner, or edit the blog template, to select a feed format.

Use the FeedBurner "Edit Feed Details" wizard, if you redirect your blog feed to FeedBurner.

If you don't use FeedBurner, you can edit the blog template, and manually change feed URLs. Note this will involve editing the post template, to change some links in the blog. This is not a recommended solution.

You may choose from 5 blog posts feed URLs, provided by this blog. You can do the same, with your blog.

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

Do you really want to select Atom or RSS this way?

FeedBurner has two services, that let you mix and match Atom vs RSS.

• SmartFeed dynamically serves the right choice - Atom vs RSS.
• Convert Format Burner lets you statically select one format, or another.

Using either service, FeedBurner selects the desired feed format for you - regardless which Original Feed URL you provide, in "Edit Feed Details". Just give FeedBurner the default feed URL for your blog " ... /feeds/posts/default" - and let FeedBurner do the work, depending upon the service that you select.

You activate either service from the FeedBurner dashboard "Optimize" tab. Note that you should choose only one service, for each FeedBurner feed provided.

Important: We recommend not using this service if you use SmartFeed. SmartFeed will override any Convert Format settings in order to make your feed compatible with all feed readers, whether they support Atom, RSS, or both.

"SmartFeed" selects the best format, dynamically.

For the best experience by all readers, SmartFeed will automatically provide the feed format favoured by any feed reader used - as each reader views your feed.

Translates your feed on-the-fly into a format (RSS or Atom) compatible with your visitors' feed reader application.

Enable SmartFeed - and let FeedBurner choose the best format, for each different feed reader being used.



"Convert Format Burner" lets you choose the format - and version.

If the choice of feed format (Atom, RSS) - and even choice of format version (Atom 0.3, Atom 1.0, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0) - matters to you, you can use Convert Format Burner, and select a specific format and version.

Nine flavors of RSS and now two formats of Atom ... who has time to keep track of it all? FeedBurner does! Let us convert your feed to any of the format choices listed below.

Enable Convert Format Burner - and you choose what feed format and version gets served, to all feed readers.



You can have multiple feeds, and multiple FeedBurner outputs.

If you have conflicting requirements, you can always setup multiple different FeedBurner feeds - and use different feed service options, for different feeds. You can then provide each feed in a consistent display, using the "BrowserFriendly" service.

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If you want to serve the right newsfeed format from a #Blogger blog, you can either tweak the code in the blog template - or you can use a #FeedBurner feed, and activate the "SmartFeed" or "Format Burner" service. Using FeedBurner is a simpler choice, than the template editor.

Blogger Magic - Supporting A BlogSpot URL Change

Blog owners are always changing the URLs of their blogs - then asking why Blogger does not provide automatic redirection, to the new URL.

We see the occasional query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

How do I redirect my readers, to my new URL?

And this is a need that will likely go unfulfilled.

If Blogger provided automated redirection, spammers would abuse it, as part of a spam publishing strategy.

Blogger wants to keep the Blogger infrastructure as free from spam, as possible.

Changing the URL is simple enough.

Just use the Publishing wizard, in the Settings - Basic page, and Edit the "Blog Address". Subject to availability, your blog will have a new URL - as you watch.


The change is not difficult. Just Edit "Blog Address".


But with a new URL, unplanned, you'll lose traffic.

Blogger does not support automated blog to blog redirection.

Trying to keep the Blogger ecosystem clean from spam, Blogger actively discourages automated redirection. Neither JavaScript or meta refresh redirection is recommended.

You can use passive redirection, though - and give your readers the choice, to read the blog using the new URL.

• Setup a blog cluster.
• Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Setup a blog cluster.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and pair the old and new blogs, actively. There are a number of possible techniques to use, to combine two blogs as equals.

You will need informative, interesting, and unique content, for both blogs, to get the most from this approach.

Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and add a single post, advising your readers about the change - with a link, taking them to the new blog. You can use a custom 404 display, to collect all existing links to posts in the blog, which will take your readers to the single post.

A Featured Post is perfect, as the single post in the stub blog.

You can redirect the blog posts feed, even though you can't redirect the posts themselves. Just redirect the old blog feed, to the new blog posts feed URL.

Combine the two approaches, if you like.

There's no need to consider the two approaches as mutually exclusive. You can use techniques from each, if you like. Simply pick an approach that suits your readers.

Just don't look for automated redirection. That's not likely to happen.

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Some #Blogger blog owners decide to change the URL of their blog - then ask how to setup automated redirection, from the old URL to the new. That is, however not likely to be an option provided, or even allowed, by Blogger.

Non Existent Blog Feeds, Replaced By Mysterious Content, On Our Reading Lists

Periodically, we see reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about hijacked blogs. Sometimes, the reports come from blog owners (or former blog owners) who cannot now control (or publish) their blogs - or maybe who report mysterious content on their blogs. Other times, the reports come from people who report mysterious and unwanted content in their Reading List (Google Reader) displays.

Of the latter group, many are being found to have earlier Followed blogs owned by people who are naively trying to attract random readers to their blogs, and who overlook the reason for having blog feeds in general. Different Followers would report seeing multiple streams of randomly changing content in their Reading Lists.

Recently, we've gotten reports from people who are seeing a single, and unique hijacker in their Reading Lists - producing consistent streams of duplicated, repetitive content. This does not appear to involve blog owners, naively misusing the Post Feed Redirect.

Some time ago, we explored a mysterious scenario, of people unsuccessfully trying to setup a blog feed gadget, who reported a mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" displayed in their "Configure Feed" display. It appears that Blogger fixed the condition which caused the "Configure Feed" gadget to display the mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed".

Now, people who Follow blogs lacking a feed, or who Subscribe to blogs with no feed, are not seeing an error message - they are simply seeing an unwanted feed in their Blog Feed gadget or Reading List / Google Reader displays.

If you are seeing mysterious, repetitive, and unwanted content in your Reading List / Google Reader display, take some time and diligently check each individual feed. Instead of finding one or two blogs which are using an inappropriately redirected feed, you may find multiple entries referencing non existent feeds. Blogs that you were legitimately Following may now be producing no feed.

• Blogs that have been deleted.
• Blogs that are now private.
• Blogs that simply have the feed disabled.

Any of these blogs, viewed en masse, may now be producing a single, repetitive stream of mysterious and unwanted content. This will possibly be more likely with homogenous and large Followed communities.

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Our Reading Lists, Hijacked By Spammers

I've been writing about spammer activities, and about various blog hijacks, for some time. There's a special, rather devious blog hijack, involving spammer activity, that we've been aware of, for some time. In Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we occasionally see the query

How do I get rid of spam, in my Reading List? I did not Follow this blog!

Nobody will, intentionally, Follow a blog full of spam. In some cases, though, people Follow blogs that are published by naive blog owners, who have been conned by the spammers, into working for them.

The never ending need for more Followers, readers, search engine reputation, subscribers, and traffic, is a frequently expressed concern in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

In discussions outside Blogger Help Forum, one might possibly find suggestions of other, more imaginative ways to get more traffic to your blog. With Blogger blogs, there's a very obscure and easily used feature, that can be used to publicise your blog, randomly, to readers that you would not, otherwise, address.

All that you need do is to redirect your blog feed into a "feed redistribution cloud", that randomly redirects the readers of any blog, to viewing the feed from another blog, similarly using the redirect.

By redirecting your readers, you are exposing them to other blogs, randomly selected. Similarly, readers of other participating blogs are randomly redirected to your blog - and there is the promised publicity for your blog.

This is such a great idea, isn't it? Think again.

1. Your Followers (and subscribers) want to read the feed from your blog - not from some random blog.
2. Many Blogger blog owners don't use this feature.
3. Many users of this feature are not legitimate Blogger blog owners, but publishers of spam blogs and websites.
4. Should you redirect your readers into a "feed redistribution cloud", the chances are greater that your readers will be reading a blog published by a spammer.
5. No spammer will redirect the feed from his blog. He's going to keep all of his traffic, to himself
6. Since no real people knowingly subscribe to feeds from spam blogs and websites, your blog won't be getting any reciprocal crowd of eager would be readers, originating from the spam blogs and websites.
7. And, we are here.

As a Follower (and not a blog owner), having examined your Reading List and found yourself reading a blog full of spam - that you certainly did not Follow - what do you do? It's a simple - but possibly tedious - task to identify and remove the blog owned by the naive person, who was conned by the spammers, that you are Following.

Having done that, why not go one step further, and help us to help Blogger and Google to interdict the spammer activity?

If you can identify the URL of a blog, that you are Following, that is redirecting its feed in this manner, Blogger / Google can identify and terminate any Google hosted blogs and websites that are advertising this easy, random way to publicise your blog - that is simply another trick used by the spammers, into getting the naive blog owners to do their dirty work.

All that we need is the URL of any blog, that you were Following, that rudely redirects its subscribers (like you) into the "feed redistribution cloud". Blogger / Google can do the rest.

You can comment, here - or start a discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken - it's your choice. Just help identify the naive blog owners.

Do your part, and help us clean up the Blogger Blogosphere.

Use The Post Feed Redirect URL, When You Rename Your Blog

When we rename a blog, we use the Post Feed Redirect URL to redirect all feed references, from the old URL to the new feed URL.

When we setup a custom feed for a blog, maybe using FeedBurner, we use the Post Feed Redirect URL to redirect all feed references, from the blog, to the FeedBurner feed. That lets us use a FeedBurner feed without having to change all of the feed links in the blog.

Besides using the Post Feed Redirect URL to setup a FeedBurner feed, you can use the Post Feed Redirect URL when you re publish the blog to a new BlogSpot URL.

Please! Be sure to setup the Post Feed Redirect in the proper direction.

Using the post feed redirect is a simple, 1 - 2 - 3 exercise.

1. Publish a stub blog, to the old URL.
2. Determine the URL of the blog post feed, under the new URL.
3. Set the post feed redirect, for the stub blog.

Publish a stub blog, to the old URL.

Immediately after you re publish the blog to its new URL, you should be setting up a stub blog, to visually point your readers to the new URL. Besides visually pointing your readers, you can re point your subscribers - again using the stub blog.

Determine the URL of the blog post feed, under the new URL.

Copy the updated feed URL from the blog header. Precision is essential when redirecting the feed, so let Blogger do the work for you here - determine the new post feed URL, properly.

Set the post feed redirect, for the stub blog.

Go to Settings - Other, for the stub blog, published to the old URL. Edit the "Post Feed Redirect URL", and paste the new feed URL, as just copied.

When you do this, all subscribers to your blog, under the old URL, should see the blog feed in its new home, with linked content. The search engines, indexing the blog using a sitemap based upon the old URL, should start indexing it using the new URL.

Properly done, this should give your blog, under the new URL, a good start towards regaining the search engine reputation that it had, under the old URL.

People Follow Blogs, Not Templates Or URLs

Occasionally, we have people expressing confusion about loss of Followers.

I updated my template, and I lost my Followers!

If you only update your template and nothing else, your blog should still have its Followers. You may lose various gadgets from the template, when you make changes - but even if the Followers gadget is lost, the existing Followers continue. Just look at the Followers community, from your dashboard, and you'll see the Followers.

If you look at the code behind the "Follow Blog" link in the navbar, you'll see an odd code snippet. Here's an example of what you might see.

<script type="text/javascript">function follow(blogID) {window.open("/follow-blog.g?blogID=" + blogID, "followblog", "height=600, width=600, toolbar=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no" );} </script>

The key there is "blogID" (blog number), not "URL" (blog address). When you Follow a blog, you Follow the blog by number, not by address. This gives two very interesting results.

• If you setup a new blog, to maybe test a major template change, use that blog only for testing, and copy the tested template into the existing blog. If you swap URLs, and make the test blog your operational blog, your Followers will remain with the old blog.
• If you change the URL of your blog, setup a stub blog at the old URL, with a redirected feed. Your Followers will Follow the feed from your new URL, just as they Followed the the feed from the old URL.

That does mean, though, that renaming your blog will not affect your Followers - though it will affect their ability to Follow you using the blog newsfeeds. If you care about this detail, immediately after renaming your blog, setup a stub blog, at the old URL - then use the Post Feed Redirect to point to the new URL.

Blogger Magic - The FeedBurner Redirected Feed

One of the neatest bits of magic in the Blogger trickbox is the FeedBurner (external) feed redirection. A redirected FeedBurner feed requires 2 steps.

1. Setup a FeedBurner feed, sourced from the blog native feed.
2. In Settings - Site Feed, redirect the blog feed to the FeedBurner feed.

The native feed from this blog, "blogging.nitecruzr.net", is

blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default

That's how my blog started out (after I republished the blog to the custom domain URL). I setup a FeedBurner feed

feeds.feedburner.com/Nitecruzr-Blogging

after this blog had been long in existence.

Normally, when you change a URL, half the work involved in the change is going around to all of your readers and saying

Hey, check out my new blog feed, "feeds.feedburner.com/Nitecruzr-Blogging

Informing your readers is the complicated part of this change.

In this case, I spent no time doing that. Many of my readers don't even know about "feeds.feedburner.com/Nitecruzr-Blogging", they think that I'm still publishing "blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" (which I am, actually).

All that I had to do was change one setting in my blog. In Settings - Site Feed, I set "Post Feed Redirect URL". Blogger took care of the rest.

A post feed redirect is the simple part of this change.

Let's look at a redirected feed, using an excerpted HTTP trace.

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1
Host: blogging.nitecruzr.net
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/2009101601 Firefox/3.0.15
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.53.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
X-Frame-Options:·ALLOWALL(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://feeds.feedburner.com/Nitecruzr-Blogging(CR)(LF)

...

Sending request:

GET /Nitecruzr-Blogging HTTP/1.1
Host: feeds.feedburner.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/2009101601 Firefox/3.0.15
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.155.133
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

A redirected post feed uses another DNS based redirection.

Yes, folks, another DNS redirected URL. If I ever tire of the FeedBurner feed name "Nitecruzr-Blogging", I just setup a new FeedBurner feed, then change the redirect for the blog. And the instant that I change the redirect, people reading my feed get the new feed.

I could even setup a redirected feed in another service. But be aware that not all online services will use a redirected feed.

Use whatever feed redirect you wish - just make sure that the "Post Feed Redirect URL" setting points to a valid feed URL, and you're good to go.

The Blog Feed Redirect Option Needs To Be Used Properly

When you setup a Blogger blog, and use a properly configured feed, the combinations of comments, labels, and posts feeds can do wonders for making your blog more accessible and maintainable. You have a number of feeds, with URLs based upon the URL of the blog, to work with.

For more possibilities, you can use a custom feed, provided by an aggregation service like FeedBurner or FeedDigest. When you use a custom feed, you can even redirect references, within the blog, to the custom feed, so you don't have to manually reconfigure things like post footer feed links.

You redirect feed references using the dashboard setting in Settings - Other - "Post Feed Redirect URL".

Always use this setting properly - only put a valid feed URL in the box, or you will end up with a broken blog feed. A valid feed could be:

• A feed from another Blogger blog, as when you move the blog to another URL, and setup a stub blog with a redirected feed.
• A valid external URL - one provided by FeedBurner, FeedDigest, or a similar service.

Do not point this internally, to the same BlogSpot or domain URL. You cannot use this to simply change the URL of the feed for any one blog - it must be used in conjunction with a second blog, or a custom feed setup.

Here's the redirect setting, for this blog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Nitecruzr-Blogging

That's my FeedBurner feed URL. Yours will be similar, excepting the

Nitecruzr-Blogging

If you use the URL of a feed for the same blog, you'll end up with a feed redirect loop. If your readers see anything from the feed, when it's directed to itself, it will be something like

The page isn't redirecting properly

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

If you have no FeedBurner or second blog feed to redirect into, or if you don't know what is needed here, leave this setting blank. If you're using the setting, and you're experiencing a feed related problem, you should first clear the setting.

Also, be aware of the interaction between the Google Sitemap and the blog feed. A Google Sitemap will break, if you redirect your blog feed to a URL outside the blog naming space.

Finally, note that the blog feed is intended to let your readers read your blog, with greater ease. It's not designed to let you randomly distribute the blog content to the Internet, while abusing your Followers and subscribers.