A quick way to subscribe to RSS feeds using Chrome

We recently received this fantastic suggestion from Alejandro on how you can setup Google’s Chrome Browser to auto-detect RSS feeds available on the websites you browse and to give you a quick way to subscribe to a feed on Blogtrottr.

1. In Chrome install the extension ‘RSS Subscription Extension (by Google)’ by going to https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rss-subscription-extensio/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd and selecting ‘Add to Chrome’

2. Edit the extension’s settings by selecting the ‘Subscribe to this feed’ button (RSS feed icon) in the ‘Omnibox’ (top right of the browser) and choosing ‘options’

3. Click ‘Add’ and enter the following details:

Description: Blogtrottr
URL: http://blogtrottr.com/?subscribe=%s&email=YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS (replacing YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS with your Blogtrottr email address)



4. Click ‘Save’

5. Select each of the other options (Bloglines and My Yahoo) in turn and select ‘Remove’

6. Check the option ‘Always use my default reader when subscribing to feeds’ (unless you want to preview feeds to check their quality before subscribing)


Now whenever you visit a website in Chrome with an RSS feed the ‘Subscribe to this feed’ button will turn orange. Just click on the button and then click ‘Feed Me’ to add the feed to your Blogtrottr account.

Thanks for the tip Alejandro!

Have a fantastic tip you want to share with the community? Get in touch by emailing phil@blogtrottr.com

Using Blogtrottr with Dropbox

Here's a nice article on a-iKnowledge.com about using Blogtrottr with Dropbox for file change notifications in a shared environment.

Thumbnails and media files

Its been a while since the last post, so I thought I'd let you know about a couple of new features that are now out of testing, and available for all users.


Thumbnails
If a feed presents thumbnails (via the Media RSS extension, for the curious), then these will be displayed to the right of the subject line.

Media files
Also known as media content, enclosures, attachments, and probably some other names too.  These files will be displayed in a section at the bottom of the item block.

Both these features are enabled by default for all users, and can be controlled through your Account Settings page.

Ah, PuSH it...

Good news everyone! Blogtrottr is now using PubSubHubbub.

This means much speedier updates than previously experienced, as rather than polling a feed every hour to look for updates, we are notified as soon as new content is posted. In a nutshell, as soon as new stuff appears on a PubSubHubbub enabled feed, you've got it.

PubSubHubbub is quickly gaining traction, and is already being used by Blogger, FeedBurner, FriendFeed, LiveJournal, WordPress and more, with plugins available for most other popular blogging software, so there's a good chance that some of your favorite feeds already support it.

Visit the PubSubHubub project page for more information.

How To Read RSS Feeds on Your iPad Even When You’re Offline

Jessica Cam Wong over at makeuseof.com has written a great article describing how Blogtrottr can be used to deliver delicious news to not only your inbox, but to your shiny new iPad too.