I’d like to write a python script that looked at my Delicious Bookmarks and checks to see if they are dead links. This is possible because Delicious has an API. And you can just ask for what you want by asking for a specific URL.

That works fine as long as you don’t want your private bookmarks. If you want them, you have to:

{key} = a security key for the feed, which can be found via the page associated with the feed (eg. inbox, network or bookmarks). Allows visibilty to otherwise private data.

But there is no explanation of how you find the key. It says via the “page associated with the feed”. But it’s not. Not anymore, because Delicious changed its look and in the process hid its RSS feeds.

As an aside, when did RSS because pariah? Google drops Readers, Delicious hides its RSS feeds. What’s up?

But you can still find the needed private key by signing in to your account and going to http://feeds.delicious.com/{username}/

Over on the right side, you’ll see something like the image at the right:

The URL for the “Private” link has your key in it.

You can get it by right clicking and using “Copy Link” or your browser’s equivalent. The private key is that big bunch of letters and numbers after the “?private=”. Just put it on your request URL the same way.

BTW: this key may change if you change your password.