How to fix Feedburner redirect issues with Blogger

If you've been experiencing RSS feed problems lately with blogger feeds going through Feedburner, there may be an easy fix for it. It's odd that something that has worked so well for years is now causing issues (and I just hope it doesn't mean Google is hinting that it will soon close down the Feedburner service), but... what matters is how to fix it.

Being both Blogger and Feedburner Google services, one would expect them to work just fine together, but in the past couple of days I noticed something strange: my Facebook, Google+ and Twitter blog accounts were silent, and readers were writing me about how the RSS feed had stopped working.

Indeed, it all came down to the RSS feed not working. Time to go figure what was happening.

In Feedburner, you can access a FeedMedic report that tells you if there's any problem, and indeed there were problems:

In my case the feeds were reporting a "Recursive feed redirection error":

Error getting URL: 400 - Recursive feed redirection error: Are requests for your 'Original Feed' address — the feed that FeedBurner is checking for updates — being redirected to your FeedBurner feed? Make sure your Original Feed is provided from a web address that isn't redirected to FeedBurner.

Blogger has a feed redirection feature that allows it's native RSS feed to be redirected to an external feed service (like Feedburner). But the thing is: both the original feed and the redirected feed are the same:

• http://abertoatedemadrugada.com/feeds/posts/default

This has always worked well (I guess Feedburner had a way to fetch the actual feed instead of the redirected one) but it now seems to be failing.

So we have to take care of it manually, and thankfully it can be done adding some extra parameters to the url:

• http://abertoatedemadrugada.com/feeds/posts/default?redirect=false&max-results=10

The essential part is adding "?redirect=false" to your original url feed in Feedburner. And just to play it safe, you can also add the "max-results=10" parameter to limit the maximum number of items your feed returns (Feedburner doesn't like feeds over 512KB, and this should take care of that.)

Hope that helps!

Improved Google Reader Mobile

The mobile version of Google's popular RSS feed web reader, Google Reader, has been improved.

The top menu bar has been redesigned in order to look similar to other Google mobile services (at last!) and the upper section has also been redesigned with an expand button to access more functions. This will prevent a common press by mistake on the "mark all as read" button that existed previously.

In a similar fashion, the option that showed up in the bottom of each item can now be expanded to show extra functions (the most used ones will show up automatically). This saves up some valuable space on the usually small screens of mobile devices.

Good to see Google continuously improving their web services.

Subscrive RSS Feeds via Email with FeedMyInbox

As you're all well aware (or at least you should) you can easily subscribe to new articles in this blog by clicking on the RSS feed link and selecting subscribe by email - and the same thing can be done on thousands of other blogs and sites.

However, there are feeds that don't offer that email service, and hence the need for a service like FeedMyInbox.

You just need to enter the RSS feed url address and your email, and you'll be able to comfortably read all new stuff directly in your email reader.

What more could you ask for?

Susbscribe New Posts by Email

Just to remiond you that, although I recommend subscribing to new articles on this blog via RSS feed, you can also subscribe new posts via email.

Just head on to feedburner's RSS feed page and click on the the get Internet Best Secrets delivered by email link.

That way you can be sure not to miss a new post and can read it from the comfort of your own email inbox. :)

(And of course, you're free to unsubscribe from it at any time.)

Google Reader adds Shared Comments

It was just a matter of time... and, in my humble oppinion, inevitable. Google's popular online feed reader Google Reader now has a much needed new feature: shared comments.

Sure, there will be a lot of talk about it in the following days/weeks: "Will it keep people from commenting on the original blog itself?"

Well, nothing new... the same was said about the RSS feeds.

The thing is: it's one thing to comment on a blog, for the world to see; and a completely different thing to talk about it in a closer circle of friends.


It's different, and one thing doesn't exclude the other.

People already do that in other social places, like twitter and facebook, so... why not on Google Reader as well?


I think it's a smart move, and I certainly appreciate it. Thanks, Google Reader team.

Google Reader gets Facelift

Google's online feed reader Google Reader has been remodeled - and it may not please everyone. Their motto: square is the new round.

If you're a fan of the rounded web 2.0 look you'll find it a bit odd to revert back to a "square" design.
(I must confess, even I found it a bit weird in the first couple of minutes... but it didn't take long for me to adapt and actually prefer this new and streamlined reader.)

Check the "before" and "after" shots:

 

(before)

 

(after)

As you can see, instead of fooling around with rounded corners and background colors, the new look sets focus where it should: on the information itself.

But that's not all: you can now minimize sections to save screen area, and - finally - you're able to choose whether to show/hide unread counts.

Unfortunately, you can't sill collapse/minimize your tags. (Which is something I've been asking for since the start. I hate having a long list of tags that take all that space... maybe next time?)


I must admit, I've liked this new look so much that using Gmail with its "old" rounded look has now become annoying... and, if I can say so: oldfashioned!

Is this the beginning of a new trend that will lead us back to the "square" sites?

Google Reader with Drag'n'Drop and Discovery page

Google seems to want to end this year in a good way.
After recently improving their Gmail and chat, it's time to do some simple but effective improvements to their online feed reader Google Reader.

So, if you're tired of searching for new feeds, you can now just head to the discovery page. The feeds you see there, are dynamically calculated according to your currently subscribed feeds, as well as you search and web history use. Hopefully you'll find those "interesting".

Last but not least, you can drag'n'drop your feeds on the feed list, changing their order and in and out of folders. Simple and effective! No more need to dig deep into the management pages.
This is something that should have been there from the start - but hey, better late than never.