MedlinePlus RSS and Content Sharing Enhancements
In June 2011, the National Library of Medicine® (NLM ®) released several enhancements that improve users' ability to share and consume MedlinePlus® content. MedlinePlus now offers RSS feeds for every health topic page on the site — nearly 1,800 feeds for MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español combined. Whenever MedlinePlus adds a new link to a health topic page, the item appears as an entry on the corresponding health topic RSS feed. Users can subscribe to a customized selection of RSS feeds based on their specific interests using the RSS reader/aggregator of their choice. Links to the health topic feeds are available on all health topic pages, the MedlinePlus RSS Feeds page, and via any Web browser's RSS auto-detect feature.
In addition to the health topic feeds, MedlinePlus now offers two new English RSS feeds allowing users to subscribe to all new links added to MedlinePlus and all new NIH links added to MedlinePlus. These feeds are available on the RSS Feeds page under the heading "General Interest RSS Feeds." For Spanish-language users, MedlinePlus provides one new RSS feed that contains all new links added to MedlinePlus en español. This feed is available from the Spanish RSS Feeds page.
NLM also unveiled enhancements to the print, email, and AddThis® icons on MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español health topic pages. These icons now appear above the topic summary, and the Facebook® and Twitter® sharing options are more prominent, making it easier for users to share content in these very popular social networks (see Figure 1).
Burgess S. MedlinePlus RSS and Content Sharing Enhancements. NLM Tech Bull. 2011 Jul-Aug;(381):e3.
