Author Topic: Apple sent me an email saying I can ping them for faster feed updates?  (Read 2111 times)

CMP

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 4
I just added a new podcast channel in PowerPress and this new channel was just accepted by iTunes. In the email they sent me, they state:

Quote
After adding a new episode, update your feed in the fastest possible manner with the ping service by visiting this URL:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=MY-PODCAST-ID-NUMBER

See the technical spec for more information on updating your feed using the ping service.

I thought the ping service was deactivated by Apple. Is this something new? Does this mean we can avoid waiting 24+ hours to have the latest podcasts appear? Or is this a remnant from the past that does not work anymore?

Should I add the ping URL [https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=MY-PODCAST-ID-NUMBER] to the WordPress ping area, or is this built-in to the PowerPress?

angelo

  • CIO, RawVoice
  • Administrator
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Apple did end the ping service in February of 2011 (read more). You can try that URL and you'll see it refreshes to the iTunes store web site. The ping page used to return a page with results including your feed URL.

We also noticed that message in the welcome email from iTunes a few months ago and have reported it to the Apple staff. Most likely they just still haven't updated the email template.

CMP

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 4
Thanks for your feedback.

Ah, this is too bad  :(  I hoped Apple had re-instated this.

The fact that they have not yet updated their email template shows maybe they have messy back-end management too. That is more worrisome....