Fix Fatal Error Call to Function get_link() on Non-Object in WordPress 2.8 Dashboard with Technorati Incoming Links RSS

WordPress Dashboard has a Incoming Links widget that allows webmasters or bloggers to have a glance on new incoming links that been posted backlinked from other blogs. Incoming Links allow bloggers to know what’s blogsphere reaction to his or her blog, or the popularity of the blog. Two main search engine that been used to gather information for Incoming Links widget on WordPress Dashboard is Google Blog Search (default since WordPress 2.3) and Technorati, which has to manually replace Google Blog Search or uses Technorati Incoming Links plugin.

After upgrading to WordPress 2.8, the Incoming Links widget box will display the following error message, especially for blog that using Technorati Blog Reactions RSS feed URL:

Fatal error: Call to a member function get_link() on a non-object in /home/…/wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php on line 647

When the error is seen on the Dashboard, no further information is displayed on the Dashboard page, which appears blank for the rest of the page.

The error happens due to unknown handling error by WordPress or Technorati feed issue on Technorati Incoming Links RSS feed URL, which takes the forms of the following:

http://feeds.technorati.com/cosmos/rss/?url=http://www.domain.com

or,

http://feeds.technorati.com/search/http://www.domain.com

To fix the fatal error, the solution is pretty simple. Just revert back to WordPress default Google Blog Search Incoming Links RSS feed URL. To do so, move the mouse to hover on the Incoming Links pane on WordPress Dashboard, and clik on the Configure link that appear when mouse over.

In the RSS feed URL text box, replace the existing string with the Google Blog Search RSS feed URL in the following format:

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&scoring=d&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rss&partner=wordpress&q=link:http://www.domain.com/

Replace www.domain.com with your own blog URL. Then, click Submit. The Incoming Links widget should now work properly, and Dashboard will be render properly and completely.