Displaying the RSS feed from Techcrunch - no problem! Getting the image to display in a place where it doesn't look rubbish - big problem!! The first line of text always renders at the foot of the image and to its right. I'd like to be able to wrap it around, or anything else would be an improvement!!!
The image doesn't seem to have a targetable tag (that I can find at any rate).
The parsing ASP code:
The Techcrunch XML code (snippet):
The image in this case is located under "media:content url", but try as I might, I can't actively grab it or split it from the stream.
Any ideas?
The image doesn't seem to have a targetable tag (that I can find at any rate).
The parsing ASP code:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Tech News</title>
<meta name="distribution" content="Global">
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="EN">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="icon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</head>
<body>
<table width="100" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10">
<tr>
<td><%
dim xmlDom, nodeCol, oNode, oChildNode
set xmlDom = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
call xmlDom.setProperty("ServerHTTPRequest", true)
xmlDom.async = false
'call xmlDom.load("[URL unfurl="true"]http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml")[/URL]
call xmlDom.load("[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch")[/URL]
if not xmlDom.documentElement is nothing then
set nodeCol = xmlDom.documentElement.selectNodes("channel/item")
for each oNode in nodeCol
Response.Write("<p>"& vbCrLf)
set oChildNode = oNode.selectSingleNode("title")
if not oChildNode is nothing then
Response.Write(" <h3>" & oChildNode.text & "</h3>" & vbCrLf)
end if
'set oChildNode = oNode.selectSingleNode("pubDate")
'if not oChildNode is nothing then
' Response.Write(" » " & oChildNode.text & "<br />" & vbCrLf)
'end if
set oChildNode = oNode.selectSingleNode("description")
if not oChildNode is nothing then
Response.Write(" " & oChildNode.text & "<br />" & vbCrLf)
end if
set oChildNode = oNode.selectSingleNode("link")
if not oChildNode is nothing then
Response.Write(" <br />" & vbCrLf)
Response.Write(" <a href=""" & oChildNode.text & """ target=""_blank"">")
Response.Write(" more..." & vbCrLf)
Response.Write(" </a>" & vbCrLf)
end if
Response.Write("</p>" & vbCrLf)
next
else
Response.Write("<p>" & vbCrLf)
Response.Write(" Sorry, no news today!" & vbCrLf)
Response.Write("</p>" & vbCrLf)
end if %></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>The Techcrunch XML code (snippet):
Code:
<channel>
<title>TechCrunch</title>
<link>[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com</link>[/URL]
<description>TechCrunch is a group-edited blog that profiles the companies, products and events defining and transforming the new web.</description>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:53:25 +0000</lastBuildDate>
<generator>[URL unfurl="true"]http://wordpress.com/</generator>[/URL]
<language>en</language>
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<cloud domain="techcrunch.com" port="80" path="/?rsscloud=notify" registerProcedure="" protocol="http-post" />
<image>
<link>[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.techcrunch.com</link>[/URL]
<url>[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/themes/techcrunchmu/images/techcrunch_logo.png</url><title>TechCrunch</title>[/URL]
</image>
<atom:link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/osd.xml"[/URL] title="TechCrunch" />
<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"[/URL] rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch"[/URL] />
<feedburner:info uri="techcrunch" />
<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"[/URL] rel="hub" href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com"[/URL] />
<feedburner:emailServiceId>Techcrunch</feedburner:emailServiceId>
<feedburner:feedburnerHostname>[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname>[/URL]
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo4.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with My Yahoo!</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/subext.aspx?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.newsgator.com/images/ngsub1.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with NewsGator</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.my.aol.com/add.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://o.aolcdn.com/favorites.my.aol.com/webmaster/ffclient/webroot/locale/en-US/images/myAOLButtonSmall.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with My AOL</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.bloglines.com/images/sub_modern11.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with Bloglines</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.netvibes.com/subscribe.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.netvibes.com/img/add2netvibes.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with Netvibes</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://buttons.googlesyndication.com/fusion/add.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with Google</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:feedFlare href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.pageflakes.com/subscribe.aspx?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FTechcrunch"[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.pageflakes.com/ImageFile.ashx?instanceId=Static_4&fileName=ATP_blu_91x17.gif">Subscribe[/URL] with Pageflakes</feedburner:feedFlare>
<feedburner:browserFriendly>This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site.</feedburner:browserFriendly>
<item>
<title>Google Buzz Warning: Force Feeding Users Can Result In Vomiting</title>
<link>[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/r6TPEhDuHGQ/</link>[/URL]
<comments>[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/17/google-buzz-warning-force-feeding-users-can-result-in-vomiting/#comments</comments>[/URL]
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:24:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Michael Arrington</dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/?p=159277</guid>[/URL]
<description><![CDATA[<img src='[URL unfurl="true"]http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/forcefeed.jpg'[/URL] class="shot" alt="" />A <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/google-buzz-event/">week[/URL] ago</a> Google launched <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/product/google-buzz">Google[/URL] Buzz</a>. And Google's 175 million or so wordwide Gmail users (Comscore) suddenly had this new and noisy addition to their beloved inbox.
It's been a rough week since then. Both for the Google Buzz team, and those 175 million Gmail users.
Google continues to tweak the product almost daily to deal with the incredible backlash. That's not what this post is about.
Another thing this post isn't about: the fact that Google was forced to launch the product earlier than they wanted to and didn't have enough time to test the product properly. I'm sure when the dust settles they'll talk about the process and where it went wrong, and what they'll do to avoid a mess like that in the future. They messed up. They know they messed up. It'll pass (see, for example, every interface and policy change ever pushed by Facebook).
What this post <em>is about</em> is the powerful urge companies often have to shoehorn a new product into an old one. To ease the uphill battle all new products face with getting early traction. It seems so easy to just force feed existing users on the new product. But in every example I can think of, those users tend to vomit that new product right back up.<img alt="" border="0" src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techcrunch.com&blog=11718616&post=159277&subd=tctechcrunch&ref=&feed=1"[/URL] />]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<br /><p><img src='[URL unfurl="true"]http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/forcefeed.jpg'[/URL] class="shot" alt="" />A <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/google-buzz-event/">week[/URL] ago</a> Google launched <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/product/google-buzz">Google[/URL] Buzz</a>. And Google’s 175 million or so wordwide Gmail users (Comscore) suddenly had this new and noisy addition to their beloved inbox.</p>
<p>It’s been a rough week since then. Both for the Google Buzz team, and those 175 million Gmail users. </p>
<p>Google continues to tweak the product almost daily to deal with the incredible backlash. That’s not what this post is about.</p>
<p>Another thing this post isn’t about: the fact that Google was forced to launch the product earlier than they wanted to and didn’t have enough time to test the product properly. I’m sure when the dust settles they’ll talk about the process and where it went wrong, and what they’ll do to avoid a mess like that in the future. They messed up. They know they messed up. It’ll pass (see, for example, every interface and policy change ever pushed by Facebook).</p>
<p>What this post <em>is about</em> is the powerful urge companies often have to shoehorn a new product into an old one. To ease the uphill battle all new products face with getting early traction. It seems so easy to just force feed existing users on the new product. But in every example I can think of, those users tend to vomit that new product right back up.</p>
<p>Some users think they’ve been hit with a bait and switch. Others simply don’t like a big change to what they’re used to. And millions more are just clueless about what’s going on, and they get angry and confused.</p>
<p>Examples:</p>
<p>In 2006 AOL, fearing the rise of Digg, <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2006/06/14/aol-netscape-launches-massive-digg-like-site/">launched[/URL] a product</a> that was very similar. Instead of launching it on its own site, though, they simply redirected the Netscape portal to the new product. At the time Netscape.com was generating over 800 million monthly page views. The experiment was a failure, and in 2007 AOL <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2007/09/11/propeller-will-be-the-new-netscape-digg-clone/">moved[/URL] the product</a> to it’s own domain, Propeller.com. It turned out that Netscape users for the most part didn’t know about, or care about, Digg. They just wanted their familiar news portal.</p>
<p>In 2008 Yahoo launched their own Digg clone, <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/yahoo-buzz-launches-with-massive-homepage-traffic-to-push-it/">Yahoo[/URL] Buzz</a>. It was sort of a stand alone product, but the big hook was that stories could be pushed to the Yahoo home page. Yahoo Buzz is still around (I just checked), but it certainly isn’t an interesting product and has never had high user engagement. Again, it turns out Yahoo users weren’t all that interested in Digg. And Digg users certainly weren’t going to start hanging out over at Yahoo.</p>
<p><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2007/11/06/liveblogging-facebook-advertising-announcement/">Facebook’s[/URL] Beacon product</a> is another good example. It launched in 2007, and Facebook users were enraged to see their names and pictures being put on “social ads.” <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2008/08/14/facebook-gets-slapped-with-another-lawsuit-over-beacon-wishes-it-could-opt-out/">Many[/URL] lawsuits</a> and one heck of a <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/31/why-were-suing-facebook-for-25-million-in-statutory-damages/">great[/URL] April Fools joke</a> later, Beacon stands as Facebook’s biggest stumble to date.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you take the <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/19/facebook-beacon-blippy/">Beacon[/URL] product idea and start it fresh as a new company</a>, thousands of people flock to join. Everyone knows what they’re signing up to. No one feels screwed over.</p>
<p>Buzz is starting to look like Google’s Beacon moment. Even the Canadians are <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/16/google-buzz-privacy.html">taking[/URL] shots</a> at them now.</p>
<p>Google would have been far better off launching Buzz as a standalone application. Make it invite only to start, and every single one of the early adopters would be begging to get it. A couple of weeks later give them an option of adding Buzz to their Gmail flow, and most would probably do it and call Google brilliant for thinking that one up. Then slowly bring other users on board over time, as they hear about it and want in. Fast forward a year from now and tens of millions of people may happily be using Google Buzz in their Gmail.</p>
<p>But the idea of jumpstarting the process and building the Google social graph <em>right now</em> was too tempting to Google, and they pressed too hard. Maybe some other company, seeing the results, will avoid this mistake in the future.</p>
<div class="cbw snap_nopreview"><div class="cbw_header"><script src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/javascripts/widget.js"[/URL] type="text/javascript"></script><div class="cbw_header_text"><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/">CrunchBase[/URL] Information</a></div></div><div class="cbw_content"><div class="cbw_subheader"><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/product/google-buzz">Google[/URL] Buzz</a></div><div class="cbw_subcontent"><script src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/cbw/product/google-buzz.js"[/URL] type="text/javascript"></script></div><div class="cbw_footer">Information provided by <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/">CrunchBase</a></div></div></div>[/URL]
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<p><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/pNCzvdObHkITsAR04UqzTFeRnns/0/da"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/pNCzvdObHkITsAR04UqzTFeRnns/0/di"[/URL] border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/>
<a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/pNCzvdObHkITsAR04UqzTFeRnns/1/da"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/pNCzvdObHkITsAR04UqzTFeRnns/1/di"[/URL] border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?a=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:2mJPEYqXBVI"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=2mJPEYqXBVI"[/URL] border="0"></img></a> <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?a=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=dnMXMwOfBR0"[/URL] border="0"></img></a> <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?a=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:D7DqB2pKExk"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?i=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:D7DqB2pKExk"[/URL] border="0"></img></a> <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?a=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=7Q72WNTAKBA"[/URL] border="0"></img></a> <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?a=r6TPEhDuHGQ:7eUz4CkDRJk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img[/URL] src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"[/URL] border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~4/r6TPEhDuHGQ"[/URL] height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/17/google-buzz-warning-force-feeding-users-can-result-in-vomiting/feed/</wfw:commentRss>[/URL]
<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
<media:content url="[URL unfurl="true"]http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6a53b0ded89d3ccc428cac0bfafbeb87?s=96&d=identicon&r=G"[/URL] medium="image">
<media:title type="html">michael-arrington</media:title>
</media:content>
<media:content url="[URL unfurl="true"]http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/forcefeed.jpg"[/URL] medium="image" />
<feedburner:origLink>[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/17/google-buzz-warning-force-feeding-users-can-result-in-vomiting/</feedburner:origLink></item>[/URL]
<item>
<title>Facebook’s Mobile Strategy Condensed Into 16 Minutes (Video)</title>
<link>[URL unfurl="true"]http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NIEUwf1l2x0/</link>[/URL]
<comments>[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/facebook-mobile-strategy/#comments</comments>[/URL]
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:23:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Robin Wauters</dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[facebook mobile]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[facebook zero]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/?p=159515</guid>[/URL]
<description><![CDATA[<img src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/fb-mobile-1.jpg"[/URL] />Yesterday, in a session on 'Mobile Communications 2.0' at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook's VP of User Growth, Mobile and International Expansion <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chamath-palihapitiya">Chamath[/URL] Palihapitiya</a> shared the social networking giant's current mobile strategy and its plans for the future.
It was in this session that the company for the first time talked about its latest product, <a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/facebook-launches-zero-a-text-only-mobile-site-for-carriers/">Facebook[/URL] Zero</a>, which is essentially a stripped down, text-only version of the mobile website for the social networking service. The product aims to give mobile carriers a way to offer a basic Facebook experience to their subscribers free of charge and later convert those users into premium data service customers.<img alt="" border="0" src="[URL unfurl="true"]http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techcrunch.com&blog=11718616&post=159515&subd=tctechcrunch&ref=&feed=1"[/URL] />]]></description>The image in this case is located under "media:content url", but try as I might, I can't actively grab it or split it from the stream.
Any ideas?
