hello,
i've been trying to use a google video feed on my site puckbook.com, but the URL it points to is a general google video page. Is there anything I can do to have the URL go to the video page in question.
here is my URL: http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/T4HJLU1ENO.html
this is the google video RSS page i'm using:
http://video.google.ca/videofeed?type=search&q=nhl+hockey+fight&so=0&num=20&output=rss
Help !!!
Glenn
There's definitely something odd going on there, as your digest does have the full URLs, but Google is then redirecting you to the main page. Look at your digest and hover over the links and look at the URL in the status bar of your browser (or right click and copy the link). We're providing the full URL in the digest for you, but Google is then throwing you elsewhere.
I even cropped a link down to just, say, http://video.google.ca/url?docid=4556987446977321214 and it still does it, whether from FD or not.
If you take a look at the Google RSS feed there are two URLs, one that points to the main page, and the other to the actual video. I'm guessing you guys are picking up the wrong one. Can that me modified anyway?
This is the good one:
<link>http://video.google.ca/url?docid=1154014047532735362&esrc=rss_searchfeed&ev=v&q=nhl%2Bhockey%2Bfight&srcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEAPhqXj_24I&vidurl=%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D1154014047532735362&usg=AL29H209mX0FnaFLzVBUrmAiAZMArq4bZA</link>
That's what doesn't make sense. View the source for your digest at:
http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/T4HJLU1ENO.html
We are picking out those long URLs.
I'm wondering if, perhaps, it's an issue of the URLs being over 255 characters and Google freaking out if it doesn't get that weird bit at the end. It certainly seems that way. If so, something odd is going on that we need to fix, as our database supports 2048 characters for the URL.. so I'll look into it now.
BTW, if you're who I think you are, I used to be a big fan (guess I still am)!
That WAS the problem! I've now fixed a bug which was clipping URLs to 255 characters by accident.. recrawled the feed, and it now seems to work. Give it a try.
Thanks a bunch for the quick replies... really appreciat it, the messages now link to the correct video. Out of curiosity, how can I take the images in the google RSS to appear in my feed?
Often you can't, it depends how they're encoded in. We only pick up certain tags. However, if you're willing to experiment, manually edit your template (when you edit your digest in the control panel) and look at the HTML there. %ENCLOSUREURL% might contain the correct URL (or it might contain the URL of the video, but you'll have to see..).. so try <img src="%ENCLOSUREURL%" /> in the per-item template. Alternatively you may be forced to use %DESCRIPTION% instead of %DESCRIPTIONPLAIN% to show Google's HTML for each entry, which might include the screenshot.
Sorry this sounds a bit like double dutch ;-)
I am having the same problem as well - I think. I missed the just of how you solved the problem here though.
I have a feed http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/4WYP8OFDHK.rss which was working for a day or so. Today I am getting "Error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 43, column 17, character 4772" In this feed I have a feed from Google Video http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=SOA&so=0&num=20.
Is this same sort of problem and do you have any Idea how I might go about resolving.
Gary E. Smith
THE SOA NETWORK
No, it's not the same problem (or even similar, I'm afraid :)).
The problem is http://soapbox.msn.com/rss.aspx?searchTerm=soa which I'd recommend you remove from your digest from us. Even though you can mix feeds with us, we are faithful to the original sources.. so if they have grotesque errors many of those will pass through us too.. Garbage In, Garbage Out, as they say. We fix some of the less fatal problems, but that MSN feed you're using is flawed to the max, as FeedValidator shows:
http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoapbox.msn.com%2Frss.aspx%3FsearchTerm%3Dsoa
There are about 10 /types/ of fatal error on that single feed! :) Your feed has ended up with only one of these, but it's still based on MSN's shoddy feed.
Thanks - that fixed the problem.
I appreciated the continued excellent support I have been getting.
Gary
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