ecmanaut

The author

2005-11-08, 21:57

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"Subscribe to feed" user scripts

Ever since I started using Google Reader, I've been plotting at making a GreaseMonkey script to add "subscribe" links to all blogs featuring (one or more) syndicatable feeds. Today it was finally time, but before going about it myself, I had a quick peek at userscripts.org to see if someone had beat me to it. Someone had. Fairly nicely, too, though of course not exactly the way I had planned mine, from an aesthetic point of view.

So I started off from the Nowhere code base and retweaked the looks and functionality to my own taste, and when I was done I felt I could just as well spare another hour or so to swing together subscribe scripts for a few other common feed readers, so I did. I suggest installing at most one of these at the same time (since they occupy the same screen space, in the bottom left corner of any page with RDF, ATOM or RSS feeds):

Subscribe via Bloglines Subscribe via Bloglines
Subscribe via Google Reader Subscribe via Google Reader
Subscribe via MSN Alerts Subscribe via MSN Alerts
Subscribe via My AOL Subscribe via My AOL
Subscribe via My MSN Subscribe via My MSN
Subscribe via My Yahoo! Subscribe via My Yahoo!
Subscribe via Netvibes Subscribe via Netvibes (contributor)
Subscribe via Newsburst Subscribe via Newsburst
Subscribe via NewsGator Subscribe via NewsGator
Subscribe via Rojo Subscribe via Rojo

What each script does (once installed), is that it peeks at all <link rel="alternate"> tags tags in all pages you visit, and when it finds a link tag with a type (or href) attribute marking an RDF, ATOM or RSS feed, it adds a panel (such as the above images) at the bottom of the screen with a button for each feed it found. Click on either of these buttons and the feed is loaded in your feed reader of choice, where you may choose to subscribe to it in a comfy fashion.

I have only tested the Google Reader script to perform subscriptions, though; please tell me if there are any problems with any of the others.

Those of you who prefer the Nowhere text icon style over the Chris Nolan based version above might opt to pick up that version instead:

Subscribe via Google Reader Subscribe via Google Reader

Or perhaps the MacManX version (I think that's about enough graphical options for google reader ;-):

Subscribe via Google Reader Subscribe via Google Reader
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8 Comment:

  • There's a one-click text link for Google Reader too, and they recently added it to MultiRSS as an option.

    By Blogger John, on Thu Nov 10, 12:41:00 AM CET  

  • Two-click, really (counting both the click in the blog and the "Subscribe" confirmation button in the Reader interface, but now I'm just being picky).

    Either way, the Greasemonkey scripts above solve something along the lines of the reverse problem, in comparison with the webmaster centric »how do I slap an "easy subscribe link" on my blog for all of my visitors?«. The visitor centric problem my scripts address is »how do I slap an "easy subscribe link" on all blogs I visit?« -- and does just that, by extending her (and only her -- the Greasemonkey web is "opt in" like that) browser in a fashion, making any and all other web sites in the entire world provide her with that two-click "easy subscribe link", whichever site with a feed she visits, from then on.

    Incidentally, though, it uses the above mentioned procedure for the Reader subscription script -- after all, that is the "subscription API" defined for Google Reader.

    By Blogger Johan Sundström, on Thu Nov 10, 01:38:00 AM CET  

  • Thank you for the scripts. I had already been wondering a while if anyone had created a simple way to get feeds to Newsburst. This post solved my problems (and I had to del.icio.us it) :)

    By Blogger Arttu, on Sun Jan 01, 10:51:00 AM CET  

  • Thanks for mentioning it; I had used a really lousy set of tags, when posting this.

    By Blogger Johan Sundström, on Sun Jan 01, 04:34:00 PM CET  

  • Great work thank you ^^!

    By Anonymous Vanessa, on Sun Feb 19, 03:31:00 PM CET  

  • Very useful tips. Thank you.

    By Blogger PhotographeDublin, on Fri Jul 07, 12:01:00 PM CEST  

  • Hi there... I wrote the original script that inspired yours.. I get a bit of traffic in from this entry, but the URL of my original post has changed. Could you please update this entry to use this link instead?

    Thanks -

    Sean

    By Blogger sean, on Tue Feb 19, 05:59:00 AM CET  

  • Why, certainly; done! :-)

    By Blogger Johan Sundström, on Tue Feb 19, 09:12:00 AM CET  

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