---
title: "RSS autodiscovery via the HTML LINK element"
date: 2002-05-31T05:23:51-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2002/05/31/oooago/
author: Les Orchard
---

# RSS autodiscovery via the HTML LINK element

<p><a href="http://matt.griffith.com/weblog/2002/05/29.html#a57">Matt Griffith suggests</a> using an HTML link element as a way to provide robots and news aggregators with means to find a site's <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/RSS">RSS</a> feed.  <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/05/30.html#rss_autodiscovery">Mark Pilgrim chimes in</a> with a few thoughts and an improvement.  And then, I see the buzz <a href="http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/2002/05/30.html#a2087">coming from Jenny Levine</a> too.</p>
<p>So, well, it's easy enough.  I just joined the bandwagon too.</p>
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shortname=oooago

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084057">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://philringnalda.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=e68e9944f50a481a64b5a32fdfc02e0d&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://philringnalda.com/">Phil Ringnalda</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221084057" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-05-31T14:16:37">2002-05-31T14:16:37</time></a>
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            <div class="content">Not quite easy enough, though: your feed doesn't seem to be in /xml/newslog.xml like your link tag claims. Bad LM. No biscuit for you.</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084059">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221084059" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-05-31T14:51:05">2002-05-31T14:51:05</time></a>
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            <div class="content">D'oht!  I am biscuit-deprived.  Good catch, should be fixed now. :)</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221084061">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
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                <a href="#comment-221084061" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-05-31T14:52:49">2002-05-31T14:52:49</time></a>
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            <div class="content">Of course, the other thing I'm wondering...  I did have the link on my story pages, but took it off since technically the RSS feed isn't an alternate view for *that* page.  I wonder if it matters so much, and if I should put it back there for convenience?</div>
            
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