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How can I create a "subscribe in Google Reader" link?

Okay, so I read through your earlier blog entry about how to change default page view in Google Reader and was struck by one thing: Your link on the bottom of the article to "subscribe to this blog in Google Reader". How did you do that?


Dave's Answer:

Glad you noticed! :-) Truth be told, I stole the core subscribe URL from the Official Google Reader Blog. It looks like this:

Subscribe to the Official Google Reader Blog

Right click (or control-click if you're on a Mac) and select "Copy Link" and you'll find that you just grabbed the following URL:

http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http%3A//googlereader.blogspot.com/atom.xml

That's for the Google blog. I simply deduced that if I change the feedurl to my own (http://www.askdavetaylor.com/index.rdf) that I'd have a handy subscribe button, and I did.

Now, for the advanced topic, clicking on that link takes you to a page where you'll need to decide whether you want to subscribe through your Google Home Page or Google Reader:

Google Reader: Add To Google

That's nice, but what if you actually want to circumvent this intermediate page and have the link take them directly to Google Reader? Again, we can copy the URL and use that instead.

A quick "Copy Link" reveals that the URL underneath "Add to Google Reader" is:

http://www.google.com/ig/addtoreader?et=gEs490VY&source=ign_pLt&
feedurl=http://www.askdavetaylor.com/index.xml&feedtitle=Ask+Dave+Taylor!

What does this mean? That you can use this link as a URL just like any other, to create a true "add to Google Reader" button, like this:

<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/addtoreader?et=gEs490VY&source=ign_pLt&
feedurl=http://www.askdavetaylor.com/index.xml&feedtitle=Ask+Dave+Taylor!">
Really add to Google Reader</a>

And here's how it'd work: Really add to Google Reader.

Hope you find that helpful too!

Update: by now you might have realized that the second step, of trying to bypass the intermediate page, appears to be broken. I've queried the Google Reader folk for some tips, but in the meantime, stick with the basic link format.



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Comments

Great tip! By the way, on a Mac, that would be control-click to access the contextual menu that makes it possible to copy the link address. Option-click (on FF, at least) actually downloads the linked file.

Cheers!

Posted by: Alfonso at June 5, 2008 5:44 PM

You're exactly right, Alfonso. I just fixed it in the article above to help others be successful. Thanks!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 5, 2008 5:52 PM

If anyone is looking for a way to add a rss feed directly to Google reader, and skip the step asking if you would like to add the feed to iGoogle or Google reader, you can use Firefox Greasemonkey script to do that for you.

It can be found at:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10729

Posted by: JoshG at December 27, 2008 5:05 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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