Blogger Introduces Better RSS Feed Controls

Blogger is still the largest blogging platform out there and, though it's lost some of its luster, it still provides a solid experience. The Blogger team is now introducing a new option for those relying on RSS/Atom feeds to keep their readers up to date.

Until now, you could either distribute a snippet of your post or the full text in the feed. With the new "Until Jump Break" option, you get much better control over how much you're sending.

"Feeds are a great way to reach a broader audience and keep your loyal readers up-to-date," Ben Eitzen, Software Engineer at Blogger, wrote.

"The challenge with feeds is that it’s never been possible to control exactly how much content is delivered. Up until now, the options have been 'Short' and 'Full'," he explained.

"But what about those instances where you want to give your users a taste — an image or two with some introductory text — and then have them visit your blog to see the full post? Well today we’ve launched a third option that lets you do just that using Jump Breaks," he announced.

Selecting the "Short" option will send out just the first 400 characters of your blog post. That's enough to give your readers an idea about what to expect and maybe get them to want to visit the actual blog and read more.

But you can't include anything else than text, leaving your feed a bit austere. You also have to make sure that you get readers hooked in the first 400 characters, which could prove restricting.

With the "Full" option, your entire posts are are syndicated, including images and HTML code. This makes your blog easy to read for those who prefer the standard look of Google Reader or their RSS reader of choice, but it means that they won't be visiting your blog, or clicking on your ads that often.

With the new "Until Jump Breaks" you get much better control over what you allow your readers to see without visiting the blog. Jump Breaks are a relatively new addition to Blogger themselves and enable you to manage exactly what to include in the main page and in the feeds.