Sometimes a button isn't just a button
posted by DL Byron on April 07, 2005
I've been working with a company on their business blog and we soft launched it earlier this week. An email quickly came in wondering why code shows up in the browser when you click on a newsfeed link. The discussion continued to orange buttons and I explained that there''s more to the orange button than a pretty button.
By using a text link instead of a button you call less attention to a geek feature and still meet the needs of advanced users. You can link to a what's a feed page or use Feedburner, which preprocesses the feed into html. You also stay neutral on a standards debate and offer all syndication forms. Considering a broader audience on a business blog, it's better to not call a reader's attention to a shiny button that'll just confuse them.
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Comments
Apr 08 | Doug Manis said:
I haven’t used Feedburner, but it looks like a nice idea and I’m tempted to give it a go here at work. But I wonder if it’s a good idea to trust our feed to a third party’s server.
Apr 08 | -b- said:
Exactly and they just got 7M in VC. For a business blog, it’s another service, vendor, etc, to integrate and explain to clients. That’s no diss to feedburner, but the struggle with xml code in browsers will continue.