Blinklmc

Release of Wikipedia RSS Feeds

We've been spending some time putting together a RSS (file format) Feed so that anyone can get any Wikipedia topic via RSS. The feed is built on the Special:Export, was produced by me, parsed by Christian Roy and is hosted on my servers at BlinkBits.

The latest version validates but it still needs some formatting work on some wikipedia pages that use tables, images, etc... We'd love to improve upon this even more and publish it under an open-source license so let either of us know if you are interested in helping put the finishing touches on the feed.

The feed works for every topic in the following languages:

• English - en
• Dutch - nl
• French - fr
• German - de
• Spanish - es
• Italian - it
• Swedish - sv

To use the feed just replace language and the topic_name with the exact wikipedia topic to the end of url.

• Here is the url format: http://www.blinkbits.com/en_wikifeeds_rss/Topic_name
• Here is an example: http://www.blinkbits.com/en_wikifeeds_rss/Derek_Jeter

Note: The feed is cached so that only very few of the requests have to burden the Wikipedia servers.

Note 09.23.05: A few sites have asked me about indexing and or pulling these feeds so over the few months BlinkBits could have tens of millions of requests. I am doing my best to keep as many of these away from the Wikipedia servers so only about 600,000 should come through to wikipedia over this period of time.

You can also use the feed to publish and track changes to your own user profile by using the following file format. Replace Blinklmc with your name...

• http://www.blinkbits.com/en_wikifeeds_rss/User:Blinklmc

The feeds include attribution back to wikipedia and the GNU note so please do not use the feed without providing wikipedia proper attribution etc. You can thumb through the directory of feeds at:

• http://www.blinkbits.com/wikifeeds.php

Release of Google Toolbar Button: Single Article

Description

Places a custom button on Google's new toolbar to preview a specific article, get RSS feed for article, see recent changes to article, and link to edit article. Also can use search box to find other articles.

Instructions

Replace language, first letter of article and article_name in the following link with your language, first letter of article name and article name (case matters).

http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=http://www.blinkbits.com/wikifeeds_toolbars/en/k/Kayaking.xml

or

Visit http://www.blinkbits.com/wikifeeds.php to find an article of interest and click on the add to Google link on the top of the page.

Usage

In Internet Explorer, click on the button to go to the article preview, pull down the menu to see most recent article and visit edit page, and use the search box to search for other articles.

Release of Google Toolbar Button: Search for RSS

Description

Places a custom button on Google's new toolbar to search for a Wikifeeds RSS feeds.

Instructions

Click on link to add to your Google Toolbar Version 4.

http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=http://www.blinkbits.com/wikifeeds_google_button.xml

Usage

In Internet Explorer, click on the button to go to directory home page, use the search box to search for RSS feeds or select text on a page and hit button to search for RSS feeds.

Release of Custom Toolbar Buttons

Overview

The Google Toolbar lets anyone add custom buttons to the Google Toolbar using XML. Buttons can navigate to and search a site and display headlines or featured links in a menu. Users can add your custom toolbar buttons to their Toolbar by clicking on a link on your website.

Description

Custom Toolbar Buttons is a web 2.0 project that mashes Google Toolbar Buttons with Wikipedia, Yahoo News and Google Search to provide you with background info, news and targeted search on any topic right in your browser.

Instructions

Search for any topic and click on link to add to your Google Toolbar Version 4.

http://www.customtoolbarbuttons.com

Usage

In Internet Explorer, click on the button in your browser to go to directory to a wikipedia preview page, pull down the menu to get news on the topic or select text or use the search form to perform a targeted search on your topic.

About Me

I am also the founder of a number of Web 2.0 properties including http://www.Sandbox.com http://www.ApartmentHomeLiving.com. I enjoy mountain biking, triathlons and ocean kayaking. 10:19, 21 March 2006 -- User:Blinklmc