Someone I met today was talking to me about reading blogs and said “I wish bloggers made links pop up as new browser windows.” Or something like that. Hated using the back button.
I said “did you know you can shift-click on links to get them to open up as new Windows?”
Later I was talking to a guy who is working on a report on blog usability and I realized just how unusable my blog is for non-geek users. No “home” link. No “about me” page. Why not? Cause I figured most of my readers are Web-savvy and can figure these things out. But, I get a lot of accidental visitors due to search engines, so I shouldn’t make that assumption.
I was talking with Dave Winer this morning and I was complaining to him about how badly most weblogs behave on mobile phones. He said that he gets it now that he uses a Blackberry and wants to read more blogs on his mobile device. I think I’m gonna make good on my threat to out them on my video show.
But, I was wondering what tips do you have for reading blogs?
Yeah, my #1 tip is to learn to use an RSS News Aggregator. That makes reading blogs a lot more pleasant (and productive!)
But, are there other tips?
One thing I do is on Google I add the word “blog” when I’m searching for something just to see if there’s a blog. For instance, looking for a trucker who blogs? Just search for “trucker blog.” Here, I did it for you.
What other tips would you tell to people who are just starting to get into the blog world?
I’ve been using the RSS ticker ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2325/ ) for the past couple of months and really love it. No need to have a seperate aggregator, just leave Firefox up (as it is most of the workday anyway), and it checks all my feeds on a regular interval and then scrolls the blog’s icon and the title of the post across the bottom of the window if there is a new post. You can then hover at your convenience, and it brings up the first couple of lines of the post. One click and it’s opened in a new tab. Lots of options as to frequency of checking, scrolling, etc. too. Nice.
I use my Blackberry to keep up on RSS feeds. I use the Berry Bloglines tool, which is perfect. If I read a post on my Blackberry it gets marked as read when I view my feeds through Bloglines on my computer. Who could ask for anything more? Highly recommended, and it lets me keep up while I’m standing in line, sitting in a boring meeting, etc.
I use my Blackberry to keep up on RSS feeds. I use the Berry Bloglines tool, which is perfect. If I read a post on my Blackberry it gets marked as read when I view my feeds through Bloglines on my computer. Who could ask for anything more? Highly recommended, and it lets me keep up while I’m standing in line, sitting in a boring meeting, etc.
I would try to read/track no more than ten blogs on a daily basis and supplement that with Techmeme/ Memeorandum/Digg and keyword feeds. Be selective. I know too many people who try to follow hundreds of blogs and let it take over their life.
I would try to read/track no more than ten blogs on a daily basis and supplement that with Techmeme/ Memeorandum/Digg and keyword feeds. Be selective. I know too many people who try to follow hundreds of blogs and let it take over their life.
May I say that I am most certainly NOT a “tech geek,” yet I read your blog almost every day. And while I did find it frustrating at first that your links did not open up to a new page, a simple right click will open it up in a new window. I have no idea what an RSS News Aggregator is, and I don’t open blogs on my non-existent Blackberry. Your blog seems just fine the way it is. No “about” page. No “bio” page. Just your thoughts about the tech world. Which is the best way for a non-tech geek like me to learn. And it works, very well for the tech geeks, too. Obviously.
May I say that I am most certainly NOT a “tech geek,” yet I read your blog almost every day. And while I did find it frustrating at first that your links did not open up to a new page, a simple right click will open it up in a new window. I have no idea what an RSS News Aggregator is, and I don’t open blogs on my non-existent Blackberry. Your blog seems just fine the way it is. No “about” page. No “bio” page. Just your thoughts about the tech world. Which is the best way for a non-tech geek like me to learn. And it works, very well for the tech geeks, too. Obviously.
My suggestions (for what they’re worth) are these. 1) Don’t try to read everything. When I’m going down my list of RSS items I don’t read all the posts that come in. Especally when it comes to my digg feeds. 2) Don’t just go subscribe happy. 3) Comment! I’ve come to think of the blogosphere as one large forum… which is really what it is.
My suggestions (for what they’re worth) are these. 1) Don’t try to read everything. When I’m going down my list of RSS items I don’t read all the posts that come in. Especally when it comes to my digg feeds. 2) Don’t just go subscribe happy. 3) Comment! I’ve come to think of the blogosphere as one large forum… which is really what it is.
is like everything else, everyone thinks they know how to use Windows, but openning and closing windows doesn’t mean you know it
is like everything else, everyone thinks they know how to use Windows, but openning and closing windows doesn’t mean you know it
Download FeedReader for Windows http://www.feedreader.com/ hack the hell out of the atom.xsl file and there you go.
Right click to get options to open in a new browser window or click the “Open in Browser” button on the top right of the preview pane.
I will never use online aggregators and I will never go back to using combo apps like Thunderbird or Opera.
All the best,
Jay
Download FeedReader for Windows http://www.feedreader.com/ hack the hell out of the atom.xsl file and there you go.
Right click to get options to open in a new browser window or click the “Open in Browser” button on the top right of the preview pane.
I will never use online aggregators and I will never go back to using combo apps like Thunderbird or Opera.
All the best,
Jay
Use online readers if you use multiple computers. Use a small device to read in bus, bed or bathroom. Bloglines also works great on PocketPC, except for Scoble’s feed; although I got pretty good at guessing what the missing 10% of words say. I hate horizontal scrolling
Use online readers if you use multiple computers. Use a small device to read in bus, bed or bathroom. Bloglines also works great on PocketPC, except for Scoble’s feed; although I got pretty good at guessing what the missing 10% of words say. I hate horizontal scrolling
[...] #1 Tip: Learn to use an RSS News Aggregators – from Scobleizer. [...]
Tera Patrick Fucking
http://myblog.es/tera-patrick
Tera Patrick Fucking
http://myblog.es/tera-patrick
hello, good idea
Blog of directtv
Blog of directtv
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What an interesting way to get people interested in reading! Book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books! You can find them all over the internet now, but here is a site that’s featuring them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/booktrailers