RSS feeds: Can't we just all agree on a common home?

Dear Proud Parent of an RSS feed:

I'm sorry to be writing to you again. I had hoped that our last correspondence would have given you some motivation to resolve the problem at hand. Apparently, you've had better things to do. And to be honest, my suggestions must have been rather weak, as they really haven't helped solve the problem.

I fear that the problem is even larger than I first thought. And I'm generally such a fervent pessimist that I don't underestimate failure. Chalk one up for surpassing even my worst expectations.

The problem? It seems that I'm still having a difficult time finding the RSS feeds on your site.

I mean, yes, that 36 pixel by 14 pixel chicklet is really helping to draw my attention. And the gigantic 80 pixel by 15 pixel button you're using to highlight your feed? What a mediocre and moderately effective technique. I'm duly impressed.

Not to mention the fact that you've taken the liberty of grouping at least 20 of those little buttons all together in one sea-sickness-inducing column of gifs. I must admit, it makes me a but nostalgic, like spectrum of some ill-begotten Web awards from 1997.

Yes, you've certainly come up with some compelling ways of trying to draw attention to the availability of your RSS feed. And for that I must commend you. Thanks for trying. I do appreciate the effort.

But I have another idea.

You know how you've learned to navigate to Google News by typing news.google.com into your browser? Or how you visit Yahoo! Mail by typing mail.yahoo.com? Well, that gave me a little bit of idea. And it's a little radical, but stick with me. Please. I said, "Please."

What if we decided to standardize on that same sort of thing for RSS feeds? Just you and me. We don't need to make a big deal of it. I'll do it. Then you do it. Then maybe someone else will do it. Who knows? In a few years, maybe 10 people would be doing it. It will start a little slow. I don't want to get our hopes to high, but it could happen. It could catch on.

Now, I know the server and directory settings to establish something like rss.yoursite.com could be a little difficult. That's not something I'm looking to do. And I'm most certainly not asking you to get the IT department involved. But what about something like this? What about if you and me, the dynamic duo, decided to do something like this, today--right now:

http://www.hypocritical.com/RSS

And what if we tell everyone that they could access any RSS feed on our site by typing that kind of URL into their browser? And what if we lied and told them that you could do that for anyone's site? That if you add "/rss" to the end of any domain URL that has an RSS feed, you'll get the RSS feed?

What's even more crazy? What if that actually worked? I mean, how great would that be if you could access any RSS feed from any site by simply adding "/rss" to the end of the domain name? I think we're talking close-to-ecstatic occurrence here. Weeping for joy in the streets. Cats and dogs living together. You get the idea.

Now, stop it. I can already hear you whining, "But I don't know how to redirect to my RSS feed. Wah wah wah." I can even see the little sad-face emoticon.

Well, turn that frown upside down, junior. Here are some examples to help you along your merry way in 3 simple steps:

Create the "/rss" directory

Create a default page for that directory (default.htm, index.asp, default.php, whatever)

And now your choice of options for the third step...

Go old school by adding this meta tag to between your head tags:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=YOUR FEED URL">

Or use ASP and add the following to the very top of your page:
<% Response.Redirect "YOUR FEED URL" %>

Or maybe you use PHP. Try this:
<?php
$URL="YOUR FEED URL";
header ("Location: $URL");
?>

See? That wasn't so hard was it? Wipe away that tear and get to work. If I do it, and you do it, then maybe other people will do it, as well. And then, maybe someday, as our grandchildren are browsing the World Wide Google together, we'll all know that adding "/rss" to the end of any domain will get us directly to the RSS feed we're seeking.

No more searching for chicklets. No more digging through source code for the oh-so-ironically-named RSS auto-discovery code. Just a simple straightforward concept for finding the RSS feed on any site.

The "/rss" directory. What a concept. Sometimes I impress even myself.

Will you join me? If you do, feel free to trackback your blog, or comment, or whatever. I'll list your blog here and give you a little more exposure just for being a good citizen. And that and $2.40 will get you a quad con panna at practically any Starbucks.

Until then, I remain...

Your best friend,
Rick (Rick Turoczy, jeez)

P.S. Please return my rake. I have leaves piling up in the yard.

Technorati tags: RSS, RSS feeds, feed, autodiscovery, chicklet, standards, usability