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Datagrid Girl

Marcie, ASP.NET Datagrid Blogger Girl

"Rectangular orange turd"

Dave Walker has a very funny and insightful post about the orange Xml icons we use for RSS feeds.  (Via Scoble)

You know, I think Dave's right.  Use an autodiscoverable feed.  I do like having something though where I can right-click and subscribe with whatever aggregator I'm using.  Besides, right now how do we *know* which pages have a feed?  I'm sure we're all dreaming of a day when all pages (at least the interesting ones) have an auto feed, but for now we need some kind of visual indicator that the page is “subscribable“.

--Marcie

Published May 25 2004, 05:21 AM by datagridgirl

Comments

 

Scott Galloway said:

I'm far more in favour of the nice little rss icon (e.g. http://www.carpeaqua.com/mt-static/images/buttons/rss20.gif) not as brash, more descriptive and just as useful. Allegedly (as in I have no proof of this statement), Dave Winer thinks we should all use the ugly orange turd - have to say, I disagree. In terms of usability, many more people know what RSS is than XML in terms of syndication formats (ever seen a BBC news story on "XML feed in the RSS syntax"). I totally go with using a different icon, prominently positioned - keep the same icon style (the RSS one in preference), users are sophisticated enough to read the icon to know that you can be syndicated as long as it's in a similar position each time - keeping a common metaphor.
May 25, 2004 9:29 AM
 

Nobius Black said:

Amen to that...RSS on every page...:)
May 25, 2004 1:02 PM
 

TrackBack said:

May 28, 2004 1:21 AM
 

TrackBack said:

May 28, 2004 1:22 AM
 

TrackBack said:

May 28, 2004 1:26 AM
 

Jim Duncan said:

There's some great buttons at http://gtmcknight.com/buttons/feeds.php

My personal favorite: http://gtmcknight.com/buttons/up/rss_whocares.png
May 30, 2004 5:14 AM

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