Bloglines

I mentioned Bloglines in my first post on this blog. Bloglines is just one of a number of readers that are available on the internet and are a great tool for blog readers.

I had never heard of such a thing all that long ago. To me a "reader" was something you have in the first few years of school when you're learning how to read. LOL.

Basically the idea of them is that you can list all of the blogs that you like to read and as a new post is put up on the blog, your reader indicates that the blog has a new post. You can then read through it and any other new posts, all from the same page. If you're like me and have many blogs you want to keep up with, it certainly is a good way to be able to read through many blogs quickly without needing to search through those who haven't yet posted.

I tried google reader first but was having trouble with it freezing up on me. I'm not really sure why. I gave up and started using bloglines and so far I'm finding bloglines much easier to navigate.

You'll notice some blogs have a "bloglines" button that you can click on to add that blog to your bloglines list. It's not hard to add blogs to your list yourself though. All you have to do is click "Add" in the bloglines window and then copy and paste the web address of the blog. Don't make the mistake I did though and think that you have then successfully added the blog to your bloglines page. LOL. There is one more page you have to go through. Some blogs have a number of feeds and you have to select one of these (don't ask me the difference - you'll have to ask someone who actually knows something about all this stuff to find that out LOL). In fact, just this morning I was reading about this in my blogreader - I decided it was all too complicated for me to worry about right now but if you want to know more about this from a bloggers point of view (more than a readers point of view) go and visit Dipping into the Blogpond.

If you want to add a "bloglines" button to your own blog, simply scroll down the left hand window until you find the list that is under your list of blogs. This is headed "additional features". You then click on "get a subscribe to bloglines button". For some of you, this will all sound very basic. But it took me AGES to find this. Then the next time I went looking for it, I knew I had struggled to find it the first time but couldn't remember WHERE it was so it took me AGES again. LOL. So I guess some of us need "basic". :-)

You can also Claim your own feed by clicking the options link. Above your list of blogs in your left hand window are the links for ADD, EDIT and OPTIONS. Once the "options" window opens in the right hand side, click on "publisher tools" and follow the prompts from there. Well, I'm assuming this option works for someone. For some reason, it refuses to recognise my blogs. *sigh* I think once you do that you have a few more options available to you in regard to your own blog feeds that are presented.

There are also some other great features of bloglines such as the ability to use search words to look for blogs covering particular topics of interest. You can also browse through a list of the most popular blogs. Like most places, it's easy to spend more time there than you intend. LOL.

There are a few downfalls of blog readers that I have noticed. One is that it can take a little while for a new post to be recognised by the reader. Generally this isn't too much of a problem though - unless you desperately want to be the first to read what that blogger has to say. LOL. Another one is that using readers means that your "visit" to the blog isn't recorded as a "visit" by the statcounter on the blog.

It can also make it easier not to bother commenting on a blog. The temptation to whizz through all of the blogs on your list and forget what you wanted to say in response is very real and it can take some discipline at first to get used to going to that blog and commenting before reading on. I think most bloggers *live* for their comments. It gives a good indication of whether or not you've created an interest in what you've said and adds a fantastic dimension to blogs that I don't think other areas of media necessarily provide. So if you're using a reader, don't forget to stop by the persons blog occasionally (or often) and leave a comment. :-)

To find bloglines go to bloglines homepage. When you get there you'll find a "sign up now" sign in the centre of the page. Click on that and it will take you through a very simple registration process and then away you go - start adding those blogs! :-)

If you use bloglines and have another feature you enjoy, drop by and add a comment to let others know about it.