Richard MacManus reports that FeedBurner has just introduced FeedFlare, a new service that adds additional functionality to feeds. Currently, FeedBurner users can choose from 5 options: Email this, Email the author, Technorati links, Tags, and Add to del.icio.us. They also plan to release an API that will allow developers to create custom feature sets to make feeds truly unique and useful.
FeedFlare opens up many opportunities previously unheard of with feeds. The default ability to add an article to del.icio.us guarantees more exposure to articles because people no longer have to visit your site to bookmark it, which should produce significant benefits for those of us with more feed readers than site visitors. Also, this is one step towards removing the fear of publishing a full feed, so we may see less “Click here for more…†as a result. And with tags being associated to articles, it may be possible for feed readers to begin allowing for search by tags. All of the features introduced can be instantly beneficial.
The FeedFlare API is where I think we will begin to be amazed. Not only will we begin to see integration with every API out there, such as “Add this entry to Backpack,†but also more standardized features that may require help of the feed readers. For example, if certain data is present a comment form may show that will allow us to comment on an article from within our reader. Or for sites with paid subscriptions, they may offer free content in their feed, and a universally accepted “Subscribe to this feed†may be adopted that can link to any payment service. There are a ton of possibilities, and I am looking forward to seeing what people come up with.
I often find myself reading an entry in my feed reader and wanting to add it to del.icio.us, which requires me to first visit the actual site, then add it to del.icio.us. This takes that extra step out. Very cool. As more sites start to adopt these features, I see myself bookmarking even more stuff… I wonder, how will I ever find that one thing I’m looking for 6 months from now among everything? Anyway, at least I’ll have slightly more time to search, now that I can bookmark items in slightly less time.
This is pretty cool. I just noticed this feature when logged into Feedburner today, then I checked Bloglines, and voila - there was the explanation as to what it’s all about. I’m off to add this to my RSS feeds, thanks for the heads up!
FeedBurner really is ahead of the curve in many ways. Nice mashups now, including Flickr pics and del.icio.us tags. My only recent complaint are the new designs, they need some serious improvements. Bring back the old default!