Using Google to Generate RSS Feeds for non-RSS Sites

One of the offshoots of the popularity of blogging as a marketing and publishing platform is RSS. RSS, or really simple syndication, has its roots in simple XML markup, which can be read by different applications and software. Mostly, it is used to keep track when a blog is updated, but it can also be used to syndicate content (for publishing elsewhere) and for aggregating (for publishing as a mashup, for instance). Marketing professionals have also discovered the importance of RSS as a push-based mechanism, since this gives users the freedom to receive information even without having to access websites and blogs directly via web browser.

Not all web developers publish RSS feeds on their sites, though. Most blogs have RSS enabled by default, and this makes it easy for readers to subscribe. However, readers who are fond of using RSS to keep track of their news might find it difficult because of some sites that do not publish an RSS feed.

One good workaround would be to use Google blogsearch and Google news to retrieve information.

For instance, let’s say the online version of the Chicago Sun Times at www.suntimes.com doesn’t publish RSS feeds (and suntimes.com does not, actually). If you want to include the site in your RSS feed reader, simply log in to Google Blogsearch at www.google.com/blogsearch and key in the following at the search box.

site:suntimes.com

Google will then present a list of sites under the suntimes doman–these may be blogs under subdomains, or articles on the main page itself. Look for the RSS link at the left side of the list:

You can use either the Atom or the RSS link URL to subscribe with using your feed reader.

Another option is by using Google news. Simply log in to Google news at news.google.com and enter the desired URL in the search box. You will then be presented a list of articles that Google News has syndicated from the source. At the left side is, again, a set of RSS/Atom links you can use for subscribing.

Now the limitation here is that the site you want to subscribe to should be in the list of sources that Google News syndicates. Still, this is a good way of subscribing to sites that still don’t publish RSS.