Jay's WebLog

Mobile Devices, Xbox, and all things fun

Peeve: Long URL names for RSS feeds

Request to RSS providers, PLEASE use short feed URLS! If I have a PocketPC or Smartphone with an RSS Reader on it, I'd like to add your feed quickly! :).  Having long names makes it a disincentive for mobile device users to read your pages.

Example (sorry BBC): http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/technology/rss091.xml

How about shortening that to:

rss.bbc.co.uk/news/tech/rss091.xml ?

I think that is sufficient to capture the hierarchy presented in the original URL.

Rant off.

Published Wednesday, June 23, 2004 5:53 PM by swingbeat

Comments

 

William Luu said:

Perhaps you could use tinyurl.com to generate a tiny url for their feed for personal use?

Just a thought.
June 23, 2004 6:04 PM
 

Jay said:

Thanks for the idea.. Checking it out now.
How does this work? Do they plant a cookie that associates each tinyURL with a real URL? Pretty cool idea. Doesn't quite look device-friendly, unfortunately :(, but still it's a good idea.

If these tinyURLs were transferrable from a computer to a device, then that would be very useful (i.e. make it an online favorites list)
June 23, 2004 6:13 PM
 

Curt said:

Jay, I don't think TinyURL does anything with cookies--you can send TinyURLs to your pals and they'll work. The long URL you mentioned above becomes http://tinyurl.com/2hbvq

Hope that helps (argh(v)),

Curt
July 7, 2004 10:56 AM
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