{"id":18428,"date":"2013-07-01T00:11:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T22:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=18428"},"modified":"2013-07-01T00:11:22","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T22:11:22","slug":"aggregating-feeds-isnt-all-that-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/01\/aggregating-feeds-isnt-all-that-simple\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggregating feeds isn’t all that simple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I mentioned a few times, one of my first start-up ideas was an RSS aggregator. \u00a0It was back in 2005 or so, before Google Reader was even alive. \u00a0Bloglines was the coolest tool, if I remember correctly, and it sucked badly. \u00a0I got together with a few friends of mine and we started coding. \u00a0It was an interesting challenge both technically and aesthetically. \u00a0But we got it to the point where it actually worked and wasn’t all too bad. \u00a0It was a weird mixture of Python, Perl, and PHP though.<\/p>\n

Eventually, it became too much work. \u00a0We couldn’t figure out how to monetize the thing. \u00a0And Google Reader was announced. \u00a0That sort of killed the project.<\/p>\n

A few month back, when the announcement of Google Reader’s end of life came out, I looked at the alternatives and wasn’t pleased. \u00a0I thought with all the technical advances in the last few years, and with my own improved knowledge, I could attempt the task again. \u00a0Yes, I know, I am hopeless optimist in a lot of matters.<\/p>\n

At least this time it took just a few days to convince me not to pursue the goal. \u00a0Alternatives are plentiful. \u00a0Each and every one of them is light years ahead. \u00a0I still don’t enjoy front-end development. \u00a0And I still have no clue as to how to monetize it. \u00a0So, the Subs Reader<\/a> got frozen. \u00a0At least I got it all in frameworks, and left it in the Open Source state. \u00a0If I ever will have another try, I can pick up from here.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve done the last time, was not documenting the project’s process at all. \u00a0I vaguely remember that I didn’t sleep for a few nights, trying to figure out all kinds of problems. \u00a0But what were they, I don’t remember.<\/p>\n

Today, I came across a blog post which lists similar problems that I had to solve, but in greater number and variety. \u00a0Even if you aren’t thinking about writing your own RSS reader any time soon (or ever), you should still read through the Brian’s stupid feed tricks<\/a>. \u00a0First of all, they clearly illustrate how much complexity is hiding in the details. \u00a0Secondly, they show non-standard is the web in general and RSS in particular. \u00a0If you do any kind of web crawling, you’d probably see half of the same issues in your application. \u00a0Thirdly, even if you aren’t crawling the web at all, but just code a web application or an API to one, you’ll many places where you can go wrong without noticing it. \u00a0All in all, it’s a great list of problems that everybody involved in web development can learn from.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

As I mentioned a few times, one of my first start-up ideas was an RSS aggregator. \u00a0It was back in 2005 or so, before Google Reader was even alive. \u00a0Bloglines was the coolest tool, if I remember correctly, and it sucked badly. \u00a0I got together with a few friends of mine and we started coding. … Continue reading Aggregating feeds isn’t all that simple<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,18,62,1334],"tags":[1939,3206,2350,1365,1216],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-18428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-programming","category-technology","category-web-work","tag-data-aggregation","tag-newsgator","tag-rss","tag-standard-compliance","tag-standards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18323,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/06\/why-google-reader-really-got-the-axe\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":0},"title":"Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Google announced its plans to shutter Google Reader in March, the Internet freaked out. Twitter users raised their virtual pitchforks in outrage. Bloggers wept, scrambling to find a suitable replacement by the service\u2019s July 1 death date. Wired runs a take on why Google Reader is almost no more.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17879,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/14\/google-reader-is-retiring\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":1},"title":"Google Reader is retiring","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"These are sad, sad news... Google is retiring their awesome Google Reader product. We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10599,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2006\/12\/08\/another-change-in-rss-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":2},"title":"Another change in RSS habits","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"December 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have yet another change in my RSS habits. I now use two RSS aggregators. As I mentioned before, my primary RSS reader now is Google Reader. It works perfectly for all those hundreds of feeds that I want to read, tag, search, and share. Every so often, Google developers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17891,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/17\/google-reader-alternative-quest\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":3},"title":"Google Reader alternative quest","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"After the news of Google Reader demise broke out, I, like many others, started looking for an alternative. \u00a0There are many RSS readers out there, both free and commercial, but none of them is quite like Google Reader. \u00a0 So, I thought, I'd share my adventures in hopes of more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22114,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/03\/a-year-without-google-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":4},"title":"A year without Google Reader","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"July 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Mashable reminds us that it's been a year since Google Reader has been decommissioned. \u00a0They are also doing a survey to find out if people use more of RSS feeds now or less, what they've substituted it with and which tools people are using now to follow their favorite feeds.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18423,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/30\/goodbye-google-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":18428,"position":5},"title":"Goodbye Google Reader","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, June 30th, is the last day of Google Reader availability. \u00a0If you completely ignored all the noise around the matter, run quickly, export and backup your feeds. \u00a0Tomorrow Google Reader will be no more. \u00a0 Of course, I've been on a quest for the Google Reader alternative. \u00a0Of course,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Google Reader","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Google-Reader-500x229.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18428"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=18428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}