A Social Bookmarking Button

The following button makes it easy for people to quickly bookmark your page within their preferred bookmarking service. Note: this can be placed on any webpage and is not dependent upon RSS at all. This free service is also provided by AddThis.com (Note also that the following button size is probably the most appropriate size and look for a government site.)

Also note: USA.gov utilizes this same social bookmarking service on their portal pages.

RSS Feed Via a Widget

When you utilize FeedBurner, you also get the option of publishing a widget being created by SpringWidgets.

Right Column

RSS Feeds - Tools, Tips, & Techniques

RSS Feeds are utilized all over the Web. The most common use is when you go to a common news portal such as one provided by: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc. In addition, many people are starting to utilize "feed readers" as a type of personalized managed portal tool to easily manage and read all the RSS subscriptions they have subscribed to.

Today many governmental agencies have already provided RSS feeds for their news releases and subscription notifications to the public. CA.gov has started a webpage that gathers the links to all the RSS feeds of State government into one convenient place for the public to be able to subscribe to.

All State of CA RSS Feeds

Simply put, RSS is accomplished by publishing an XML file in RSS format. You could do this manually by going to the following website for the RSS 2.0 specification, and then fill in the information between the right tags (but this can become complex and unmanageable very quickly.)

RSS 2.0 Specification

(Note: for more information on RSS visit: WebContent.gov RSS)

If your website is served up based on a content management system (CMS), RSS is usually a built-in feature of your CMS. If you do not have a CMS, there are numerous tools you can utilize to create and manage your RSS file. Here are some better ones that are often utilized, and they are free:

• RSSeditor (for use in Windows)
• RSSeditor (an add-on for Mozilla Firefox
• Listgarden RSS Feed Generator Program

Periodically the eServices Office will hold free Feeds Publishing Workshops for agency webmasters to help them publish their web information utilizing the open RSS format.

Additionally, here's some simple instructions for publishing a feed using the RSSeditor

Once you generate your RSS file, upload it to your website and then provide a link to it from a webpage. However, to enhance how your RSS looks, its functionality and visibility, and track statistics on its use and performance, you will need to utilize other services.

The most common and powerful service for accomplishing much of this is called "Feedburner" and it is free. Once you register your feed on FeedBurner, you will find a large set of new ways to enhance how your feed is published and read. (We recommend the Feedburner service because it will enable your feed to be found and read by a much greater audience by publishing your feed out to other websites and feedreader formats. For more information on how to best leverage the Feedburner service for your feed, go to FeedBurner - Optimize, Syndicate, and Track RSS Feeds )

Currently the State Portal "Highlights" section is available as an RSS Feed. The Portal leverages the FeedBurner service to enable an easier method for users to subscribe both by email or by their own feed reader of choice. CA.gov

Additionally, you can leverage other free services from SpringWidgets and AddThis. This webpage demonstrates some of the capabilities of these free services.

Finally, in addition to FeedBurner there are other more extensive "pinging" services available on the web also that will cause your feed to be indexed and consumed by many other services on the Web where the public frequents. Take a look at these pinging services, and the informational services they ping to select the best places to index and republish your feed information to reach the audience you are trying to reach:

• Pingoat
• Ping-O-Matic
• Feeds Pings

RSS Feed Displayed in a Webpage

There are ways to display the information directly from your RSS feed file directly on your own webpage. The Department of Technology Services is testing a common method you can leverage and once completed it will be demonstrated here and made available for everyone to download and utilize.

State of California Portal Highlights - SpringWidget RSS Display

Here is an example of a SpringWidget displayed as a large object style. This particular SpringWidget has multiple RSS feeds from the State included in it. It is displayed here for your understanding, but it is not recommended that you display this within a State webpage because it is not visible to a reader for a person with a disability. Never the less, you can provide a link to this type of widget, or a small display (like the one on the left) so that those who do not have a disability could utilize this same widget on their: desktop, personal portal page (like Yahoo, iGoogle, etc.) or on their own blog or website.

Note: you can adjust it to the size that makes sense for you.