locating syndication feeds

[Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>]

As many have noticed, one of the biggest problems with syndication is
locating feeds. Often, you'll find a resource you'd like to obtain a
feed for, only to spend minutes (or hours!) scanning the HTML source,
"about" section of the site, and the top and bottom of every page.

This problem has been discussed before. I'd like to propose a
solution, and try to move something forward.

To start, here are what I believe should be the core requirements for
such a mechanism:

* It should be syndication format-agnostic

* Futhermore, it should support the communication of multiple,
  alternate feed formats for a particular resource

* It should support discovery by both people who are browsing the
  site (the 'find the feed for this page' scenario) and automated
  processes (the 'syndication spider' and 'browser automatic feed
  location' scenarios)

* It should allow feeds to be sent to aggregators both on the client
  machine, or located at an arbitrary URI on the network

* It should be easy to integrate the mechanism into already deployed
  web browsers

* It should have a path to integration into next-generation web
  browsers

* It should not require the storage of state or preferences in a
  centralized registry or location; the only participants in
  interactions should be the server where the channel is hosted, the
  browser, and the target aggregator (on the client or on the
  network)

Thoughts? I think I have a candidate for how to do this, but I want
to get feedback on the premises first...

Cheers,


-- 
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/