Toolbar

New RSS reader feature in Canuck PR Toolbar

by Martin · Jan 5, 2007

Users of the Canuck PR toolbar may have wondered about the new button called “RSS – All Feeds” that has popped up out of nowhere. In addition to the existing directory of Canadian PR, marketing and media bloggers and the news ticker, I’ve now also included an RSS reader with all the feeds from the listed Canadian PR and marketing bloggers.

People who subscribe to all these blogs in their own RSS readers, either as part of their browser or in readers like Bloglines or Live.com, may not be interested in this new feature. If you don’t like it, it is easy to turn the RSS reader off by clicking on Toolbar Options (in the Canuck PR menu on the left of the toolbar), selecting “predefined components” and de-selecting “RSS All Feeds”.

The PR and marketing blogger list keeps growing. The following blogs are currently included in the RSS reader (click image to enlarge):

I will update the directory, newsticker and RSS reader with more Canadian PR and marketing blogs as soon as I come across new ones or get a heads up from other people in the comment section.

In other toolbar news: The resources directory has been updated with a link to David Jones’ excellent Social Media Toolbox for PR People in Squidoo.

BTW – if anybody is looking for a list of PR blog feeds that isn’t limited to Canada, I recommend the Public Relations Feedburner Network.

And finally, a quick note on RSS feeds: special kudos to Marc Snyder for having the biggest RSS icon this side of the 49th parallel. It doesn’t have to be that big but it helps to have the RSS icon in an easy to find location, preferably near the top of the page. When I went through all the blogs in the directory to find the RSS feeds, it was interesting to see where some bloggers had placed the links. In two cases, I couldn’t find a link to an RSS feed at all. So one blog isn’t included in the RSS reader and with the other I was lucky to guess the feed URL.

P.S.: If you don’t have the Canuck PR Toolbar installed yet, you can download it here.

Get the new Canuck PR Toolbar – version 1.0

by Martin · Oct 3, 2006

As promised a couple weeks ago, here is a first version of a Canadian PR toolbar. Download it at http://canuckpr.communitytoolbars.com/.

The toolbar is based on a very cool, free service by Conduit. I am looking for a few people who are willing to test it and provide feedback. I hope this will be a community effort.

It is now called Canuck PR Toolbar because somebody else must have already reserved the term “Canadian PR Toolbar” (Ed?) on the Conduit site. Anyway, the Canuck PR toolbar includes:

SEARCH BOX

Google.ca is set as default but once you download the toolbar, you can change it to other search engines. I’ve added Technorati, MSN, Yahoo!, MSN News, Yahoo! News, Google News and Wikipedia. Other wishes?

It also comes with a “highlight pen”. If you put in words in the search box and click on the highlight button, it highlights those words on the current site in your browser.

PR BLOGS

The current list of Canadian PR blogs is just a start, it has nothing to do with a ranking or a “top list”. If you have or know of a Canadian PR blog that is missing, leave a comment and I will add it. Don’t be shy (you are in PR, remember). Nominate yourself and others. It makes it easier for me.

The cool thing about this toolbar is that once you have it installed, your toolbar will be automatically updated whenever I update the list on my end. So it doesn’t matter if your blog isn’t on the initial list; everybody who has the toolbar will still get to see it once I’ve updated the list.

Question: do we want other related blogs (marketing, news, U.S. PR bloggers etc)? Let me know your opinion. I can include submenus to differentiate between different blog types.

PR RESOURCES

This is a list of links that includes events, associations, podcasts, publications and services. It will serve as a directory of PR resources. Again, just a start. If you have an idea for additional links, please leave a comment.

PR BLOG NEWS TICKER

The news ticker provides the latest headlines from Canadian PR blogs. Right now, everybody included in the blogs list is also included in the news ticker (except for one of the blogs where, ahem, I couldn’t find an RSS feed). Also included are two del.icio.us feeds with PR headlines from Constantin Basturea (Daily PR Digest – okay, let’s call it an honourary Canadian feed) and David Jones to broaden the scope a little bit.

I will try to include all new blogs that I am adding to the blog list in the news ticker, too. Since this toolbar is based on a free web service, there may be restrictions for the number of RSS feeds that can be added. It doesn’t say so but I am still trying to figure out the whole system, so I will add Canadian PR blog feeds for as long as possible.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

The toolbar also comes with the option of adding a few other features including weather forecast (you can input the city), a pop-up blocker tool, an email notifier (works with Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail) and buttons to open Windows programs such as Word, Media Player or a calculator. With the exception of the search box, all items can be activated/deactivated.

Again, according to the instructions by Conduit, it is not necessary to download new versions of the toolbar to receive updates to the installed features such as the blog list, the resource list or the blog newsticker. A new download would only be necessary for a major change. So if you send me suggestions for Canadian PR blogs and sites, I can add them in (just give me a bit of time, I do have a day job).

So much for now. It was a fun project putting a first version together. Please go ahead and try it out if you are interested. And let me know if you like it or think it is a waste of time. Feedback welcome.

[Please note that I have only tried the toolbar with IE7 Beta. There is a Firefox version for download, too. But I have not tested it]