So what are they? Here is what the WordPress Codex says:

Update Services are tools you can use to let other people know you’ve updated your blog. WordPress automatically notifies popular Update Services that you’ve updated your blog by sending a XML-RPC ping each time you create or update a post. In turn, Update Services process the ping and updates their proprietary indices with your update. Now people browsing sites like Technorati or Sphere can find your most recent posts!

There are a lot of URLs to use and there is a lot of variation in the importance of each. The Codex lists these:

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.wasalive.com/ping/

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

That’s quite a few URLs to add to your Update Services list! Be careful of adding new ones of course, in case they ping already existing URLs, which may cause sites to consider you to be ping spamming.

Elliot Back has a good list of URLs, which is longer than the list above, giving a list of 56 RPC and RPC2 services. Ensight’s list is a little shorter (43) but again is regularly maintained.

If you’re really interested in doing it manually, you should try Pingomatic.

Facts and Fairy Tales is a two column, centred WordPress theme, with a working width of 800 pixels. The background is a single large image (again, centred) with the title, text, and search background all placed on the background image. The menu background was placed separately.

The theme (naturally) passed xhtml validation.