Block RSS and Ban XML feeds from Yahoo Pipes

Blocking RSS or XML feeds from use in Yahoo Pipes can be done by inserting a simple “noprocess” meta tag usually located before the first <item> tag. The directive can be seen below:

<meta xmlns="http://pipes.yahoo.com" name="pipes" content="noprocess" />

Yahoo Pipes is a service with which a user can process any freely available RSS or XML feed. They may blend, mash up or splice multiple RSS feeds together as well as filter and process them.

Coupled up with auto blogging tool Literatory.com makes clever use of the custom filter provide by Yahoo Pipes. Taking an RSS feed of Wikipedia edit comments it filters them for 4 letter obsanities. Its worth a look to see how irate some “community” users can get!

To avoid your content being used by Yahoo pipes you may wish to add the above “noprocess” meta statement to your XML feed.

*Note This is not a full prove solution. As with all freely available content, an RSS feed will always be open to misuse.

Notice the Meta no Yahoo Pipes statement in situ below. Just before the <item> tag.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	>

<channel>
	<title>searchideas.co.uk</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.searchideas.co.uk/blog/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.searchideas.co.uk/blog</link>
	<description>Search Ideas is a blog all about SEO, PPC and Online happenings...</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:00:30 +0000</pubDate>

	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5</generator>
	<language>en</language>      

         <meta xmlns="http://pipes.yahoo.com" name="pipes" content="noprocess" />

         <item>
	...
	</item>

</channel>
</rss>

Alternatively you may wish to block or noindex your RSS/XML feed from appearing within the SERP’s