Full As A Goog Aggregation - Fun While It Lasted
A few days ago, I was shocked to see my very own ColdFusion blog entries being aggregated on Full As A Goog. This has never happened to me before and was very exciting. It seems though that I am no longer being aggregated :( It hasn't picked up any of posts in the last two days.
Now, I didn't want this to take a bad turn, but I want to get some things off my chest about Full As A Goog. I read it every day cause it has great blog posts. But, the site is just not very good. Here are my complaints:
- The order of the posts seems to change. I could be completely out of my mind, but it seems as though I will refresh the page and new web log entries have not only been added to the top of the list, but mixed in throughout the existing list as well. Could I possibly be imagining this??? This makes finding the entires that I have not read very frustrating! I have to always scroll down and up to see if I missed anything. But my apologies if this is just my brain playing tricks on me.
- It doesn't seem to update very often. Isn't the whole point of an RSS feed that it's like updates in real time? Why does it seem to be like a day behind on most posts? Maybe that's a time-zone issue?
- The links don't open up in new windows. When I go to click the headlines, the main page follows the link. This is a horrible idea as I never want to LOSE the feed aggregator, I just want to check out a particular post. All of these links should open in new windows.
- I have contacted Full As A Goog several times and I have NEVER gotten any kind of response. That is just plain rude.
- They never contacted me about aggregating my feed. Shouldn't they have at least let me know this was happening? Seems odd.
All day long I have Full As A Goog open and Feed Squirrel open and I have to say, I find Feed Squirrel to be a much better site. Plus, Feed Squirrel provides a link that you can Ping once you have made a blog update. Feed Squirrel keeps it up to date man! Good work Neil!
Reader Comments
You're still aggregated. I've noticed Goog has had a couple of issues lately as well, but it's something those guys do in their spare time, so it's not really something I feel like I can complain about too much. I enjoy the service they offer the community and appreciate all the time they have put into it.
I have noticed that my posts take 2-4 days to show up in goog these days. I also have contacted them about stuff and have never received a response (I changed my rss address and they never changed it). I also agree that feedsquirrel is a lot better, but not many people use that yet.
I've been trying for weeks to get my blog on either full as a goog or feed squirrel. I've never gotten a response from either one.
Bruce
I won't complain because it is a good site, even with those issues...and it generates more traffic than MXNA (and feed squirrel, while nice hardly registers traffic-wise). Also, there is a way to ping Goog. They don't seem to have ever made it common knowledge and it isn't anywhere on the site...in fact I am not even sure how I found it...and I don't mean to be a PITA, but I don't publicize it because if they have chosen to not publicize it, perhaps it is for a reason (the process is very slow and is locked while running. If I was told it was ok, I would gladly share the url :(
Cameron, yeah, I just checked the Goog and there are like 8 of my posts in a row... weird.
Don't get me wrong. It's still a good service. That's why I have it open every day along with Feed Squirrel. It seems like it has many more posts tha FS, however, on the other hand, I only look at CF on FS where as on Goog I view all posts.
Bruce, I have been in good contact with the dude who fathered Feed Squirrel. I will pass this post onto him, and now that I've talked him up, hopefully he will get back to you.
Brian, word, it is a good service. I think part of the issue to is that before my posts were being aggregated I never realized how far behind they were. Then, when I saw that some peoples posts from today were also aggregated today, I assumed that mine wasn't being aggregated because they dropped it.
Agreed on the traffic. Goog is in an entirely differnet class of traffic. Just look at the views. Posts on FS that generate like 5 or 7 hits will generate like 40 or 50+ on the Goog.
Well, if any thing, hopefullly this post can maybe light a fire under someone's butt to make some minor changes that can imporve user experience.
You do know that you can hold down shift to open a new window?
(and in FF, Ctrl for a new tab, Alt for Save Link As)
I much prefer to use that and be able to choose myself if I want a new window/tab or not, rather than having the choice made for me.
Pete,
You better believe I know about CTRL and SHIFT key commands for opening in new Tab / Window (respectively). Heck, I even have a FireFox mouse gesture plugin that will automatically open links in new windows depending on how I click on the link.
I understand the desire for choice in general, but honestly, I can't ever really see the desire to open in it the same window on a news aggregator. But, that's just me.
You could just ping it and have your posts pulled in right then.
fullasagoog.com/googimporter.cfm?id=XXX (XXX = your blog's ID)
Aaron, word up! Just tried it and it works like a charm. Some body's back in the circle of trust ... ( subtle Meet the Parents reference).
You, crazy Focker lover you. ;)
I agree with previous posts, I rather have the control on how I want my information served. Whether that be in a new window, new Tab or the same window where the link is present.
I believe somebody was a little too pissed off and starting ranting about every little detail related to Goog.
Admit it, you really don't care if it the link opens in the same window or not. You always open the link in a background tab and keep reading the main page.
peace.
Manolo,
I can see what you are saying about enjoying the control... I guess to each his own. I just can't ever see wanting to lose the feed (i have mine open allll day - maybe I am crazy that way).
And yes, I was probably peeved earlier and not thinking clearly. I think it was the extreme shock / happiness of showing on Goog followed immediately by thinking they had dropped me. Got me sad, which got me angry :(
Cheers all.
There is an option that gives you full control - get Proxomitron (from www.proxomitron.info) and create a filter that adds target="_blank" to links on Goog. :)
I have not heard of proxomitron. But that reminds me... I do have Grease Monkey installed in FireFox. I am sure I can get a nice script going that does exactly what you suggested. Thanks!
Cheers for the comments guys, it's nice to know something on feed-squirrel is going right, but as you lot point out traffic is still low.
But then again it's only been running around eight months and never really promoted. So, obviously any promotion you can give me would be gratefully appreciated.