Systems and methods for improving access to syndication feeds in network browsing applications

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with computer executable code for execution by a computing device, comprising:

code, executed by the computing device, for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over a network by a browsing application to determine the availability of a syndication feed;

code, executed by the computing device, for searching source code associated with the page in order to determine that the page data supports the syndication feed;

code, executed by the computing device, for causing a user interface element to be displayed in a user interface portion of said browsing application based on the determination that the page data supports the syndication feed, said user interface element indicating that a syndication feed is available;

code, executed by the computing device, for responding to a user's selection of said user interface element by causing said browsing application to retrieve a page from a server and display the page in a content display area of said browsing application;

code, executed by the computing device, for permitting said user to add said syndication feed to a user-specific customized home page having content therein from diverse user-selectable sources displayed on the user-specific customized home page based at least in part on authentication of the user with the server; and

code, executed by the computing device, for displaying, upon initiation and loading of the browsing application for operation by an operating system hosting the browsing application, said syndication feed and the content from the diverse user-selectable sources within the user-specific customized home page based at least in part on user-specific configuration settings stored in server based configuration storage and retrieved based upon said user authentication, said displaying the user-specific customized home page comprises loading the syndication feed and the content from the diverse user-selectable sources during initiation of the browsing application, wherein the diverse user-selectable sources are loaded during initiation based upon a determination of the user's interactions with each source and the availability of each source.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data to determine the availability of the syndication feed comprises code for searching said page for a tag indicative of the availability of the syndication feed.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2 , wherein said tag is a link tag.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an RSS feed.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an atom feed.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said user interface element comprises a button.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said customized home page comprises a page which includes one or more search fields, one or more syndication feeds, and content from one or more web pages.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said page of data comprises data in a markup language.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 8 , wherein said markup language is HTML.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of a feed which is in an XML format.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises a plugin to said browsing application.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises code integrated into said browsing application at a source code level.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with computer executable code for execution by a computing device, comprising:

code, executed by the computing device, for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over a network by a browsing application to determine the availability of a syndication feed;

code, executed by the computing device, for searching source code associated with the page in order to determine that the page data supports the syndication feed;

code, executed by the computing device, for causing a user interface element to be displayed on said browsing application based on the determination that the page data supports the syndication feed, said user interface element indicating that a syndication feed is available;

code, executed by the computing device, for responding to a user's selection of said user interface element by subscribing to said syndication feed, said syndication feed is added to a user-specific customized home page that is loaded during initiation of the browsing application; and

code, executed by the computing device, for displaying, upon initiation and loading of the browsing application for operation by an operating system hosting the browsing application, the syndication feed and content from other sources within the user-specific customized home page based at least in part on user-specific configuration settings stored in server based configuration storage and retrieved based upon user authentication, wherein the sources are loaded during initiation based upon a determination of the user's interactions with the syndication feed and each source and the availability of the syndication feed and each source.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data to determine the availability of the syndication feed comprises code for searching said page for a tag indicative of the availability of the syndication feed.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14 , wherein said tag is a link tag.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an RSS feed.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an atom feed.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , wherein said user interface element comprises a button.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , further comprising a customized home page comprising a page which includes one or more search fields, one or more syndication feeds, and content from one or more web pages.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , wherein said page of data comprises data in a markup language.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 20 , wherein said markup language is HTML.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14 , wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of a feed which is in an XML format.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises a plugin to said browsing application.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 13 , wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises code integrated into said browsing application at a source code level.

25. A method comprising:

analyzing, via a computing device, a page of data that has been retrieved over a network by a browsing application determine the availability of a syndication feed;

searching, via the computing device, source code associated with the page in order to determine that the page data supports the syndication feed;

causing, via the computing device, a user interface element to be displayed on said browsing application based on the determination that the page data supports the syndication feed, said user interface element indicating the availability of the syndication feed;

responding, via the computing device, to a user's selection of said user interface element by causing said browsing application to retrieve a page from a server and display the page, the page permitting said user to add said syndication feed to a user-specific customized home page having content therein from diverse user-selectable sources displayed on the user-specific customized home page based at least in part on user-specific configuration settings stored in server based configuration storage and retrieved based upon user authentication;

displaying, via the computing device, said syndication feed and said content from the diverse user-selectable sources within the user-specific customized home page upon initiation and loading of the browsing application for operation by an operating system hosting the browsing application, said syndication feed and said content from the diverse user-selectable sources are loaded during initiation of the browsing application, wherein the diverse user-selectable sources are loaded during initiation based upon a determination of the user's interactions with each source and the availability of each source.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly encoded with computer executable instructions, that when executed by a computing device, perform a method comprising:

providing a content display area for displaying content of a page retrieved over a network, the content display area being displayed outside a display area of a browsing application;

searching source code associated with the page in order to determine that the page supports the syndication feed;

providing a user interface element indicating the availability of a syndication feed based on the determination that the page supports the syndication feed, said user interface element being displayed outside said content display area when said page displayed in said content display area includes an indicia of the availability of the syndication feed;

receiving a user selection via said user interface element and transmitting a request to a server, the request directing the server to subscribe the user to the syndication feed, said syndication feed is added to a user-specific customized home page that is loaded during initiation of the browsing application based at least in part on authentication of the user with the server; and

displaying, upon initiation and loading of the browsing application for operation by an operating system hosting the browsing application, the syndication feed with the content display area within the user-specific customized home page based at least in part on user-specific configuration settings stored in server based configuration storage and retrieved based upon said user authentication, wherein the syndication feed is loaded during initiation based upon a determination of the user's interactions with the feed and the availability of content within the feed.

27. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 26 , the request further comprising a URL for the syndication feed.

28. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 26 , the request further comprising data for authenticating the user with the server.