v2.0 and v3.0 of the Electronic Intifada website were built on three premises:
1. That the information content delivered by the Electronic Intifada would continue to be offered at the same high standard of quality that visitors have come to expect during our first year and a half of operation.
2. That the new websites would offer an increasing variety of information and more frequent updates.
3. That online publications, activist websites, and Middle East-related organisations would be able to host our dynamically-updated headlines on their website -- known as webfeeds -- to boost their content and visitor base. Where possible, we would also syndicate their content on our site.
The result was EI WIRE, the Electronic Intifada's incarnation as a wire service for websites.
wire service, n.
A news-gathering organization that distributes syndicated copy electronically, as by teletype or the Internet, usually to subscribers.
We separated our material into different themes, ranging from media analysis to more news-oriented content.
Anyone managing a website can choose headlines from one or more of these different webfeeds, and syndicate them on their own websites by pasting some automatically-generated code onto a webpage.
When we update our articles, the headlines on your site instantly update. The advantage of this for you is that your page will regularly have fresh content, one of the main reasons that people keep coming back to a website. By mixing our content in with your own, you give people another reason to bookmark your pages.
WHAT DO WEBFEEDS LOOK LIKE AND HOW CAN I GET THEM?
Using our Webfeed Generator, you can select headline, summary and date styles to match the look of your site. Below, you will find some examples of webfeeds working in this page.
Example 1: Headline/Date/Summary webfeed of the latest 2 diary entries on EI
This feed that appears in the text below is also a Headline/Date/Summary webfeed of the latest 2 diary entries on EI. The feed is 483 pixels wide to match the usable width of this page. Note that images are delivered directly from EI's powerful multimedia server and do not tax your own website's bandwidth at all. Images only appear in webfeeds with the summary option selected.
Live from Palestine: Diaries from the Electronic Intifada
Example 2: Two-across syndication of Headline/Date/Summary from two feeds.
Two 235 pixel width feeds (size needed to fit two across this page) of the most recent Coverage Trends and Israel Lobby Watch article. Note: this effect would require the generation of two separate parts of code for the two different feeds in EI's Webfeed Generator and the placing of them in a table with two columns.
Coverage Trends
Israel Lobby Watch
Example 3: Headlines/Dates-only syndication
The "Reports and Breaking News" page on the website of the Canadian branch of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). ISM Canada syndicates a headlines/dates-only global feed from EI (ie. the latest articles from all our sections) at ismcanada.org/en/news.shtml.
The following example is a Headlines/Dates-only 483 pixel wide webfeed (the size needed to fit across this page) of the 5 latest articles from our Business & Economy feed.
Business & Economy
Enough explanation? Please try out the Electronic Intifada's Webfeed Generator for yourself! If you use feeds on your site, let us know so that we can offer a link to your implementation of our feeds as an example to give other webmasters ideas on how to incorporate them into their own sites.
