For quite some time now, I’ve been using an RSS syndication tool called Yahoo Pipes, and I have to say, it’s the best around, especially if your goal is to mash feeds. Combining RSS feeds is certainly nothing new. And, there are other, probably simpler ways including Feed Blendr, RSS Mix and FEEDcombine. But without a doubt, Yahoo Pipes provides you the most in terms of features and functionality.
There are two examples of using Yahoo Pipes (RSS mash ups) right on this website. There first, combines all of Dan DeRoeck, LLC feeds (less clients sites of course) and another that pulls in content from various small business feeds and one we are going to use an example.
To create a simple pipe such as the Small Business mash up found on this site, follow these steps:
1. Go to Yahoo Pipes.
2. Sign into your Yahoo! account – you will need to create one if you don’t have one.
3. Click on Create a Pipe
4. For simplicity, let’s stay with the example and combine two RSS feeds. Select Fetch Site Feed – simply copy and paste the RSS Feed URL into the box. Continue adding feeds until you have included all of the ones you want to combine.
5. To sort the feed, click on Operators to expand the selection and drag the Sort function over to the work area.
6. Next, simply drag the connectors to the each box starting from the URL’s.
7. Save and run the pipe to make sure it works. Then, click on Back to my Pipes.
8. Amost done. Now, select Create an RSS Feed. This will provide you the script to copy to the place you want the RSS Feed to reside, website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
That’s it! You’ve just created a Yahoo Pipe that combines two feeds.
Below, is the exact pipe found on this site called “Small Business Mash Up”:
To view it in more detail, simply click on the image.
As you can see, mashing feeds into one simple, graceful solution is rather easy. This is a very powerful way of syndicating multiple sources into one feed that allows you to extend your content.
