Alt Blogging

I checked out Twitter and Tumblr. For personal use, I don't anticipate using either of these. Twitter reminds me of Facebook's option to say what you're doing. I like it ok on Facebook, it's fun to see what clever thing my friends say they're doing, but I don't need a whole website devoted to it and I don't need it on my cell phone. I can see that younger people and people with more active social lives than mine would like it. I saw a few libraries on Twitter and I can see the advantage of the library having an account IF our patrons are using Twitter. I don't know if it would be any better than sending out email with announcements about upcoming library events. Tumblr was much like Twitter and blogs. I don't really know what makes it that different than posting short blog posts of links. Interesting, but probably not something I'll revisit.

RSS continued

Oh, it seems I'm not done with RSS yet!

1. Feedster: the link didn't work (and i really wish the FVRL 2.0 blog would open sites in a NEW window so I don't have to hit back to get to the assignment!) Here's the message I get when I google Feedster: Feedster
Feedster.com. Version 2.1 BETA. Feedster is Changing... We'll be back up soon with exciting news! So, no thoughts on Feedster.

2. Topix: I'm not a fan of the overcrowded home page. It's a bit text-heavy for me. I do like the little interactive graph that comes with the search results, but if I'm looking for news, I'm going to do a Google news search. No question about it.

3. Syndic8.com: Ewwww, I hate the homepage. I didn't realize I had such feelings about graphic design, but these are some unappealing sites! This is definitely uglier than Topix. Reminds me a bit of the old Librarian's Index to the Internet site, though I see they haven't improved much. Hmmm, why on earth would Syndic8 default to chronological order starting with the OLDEST news? That is bizarre. Hmm, it's so ugly I have to move on.

4. Google Blog Search: I've used this many times. It has the familiar Google "brand" logo, familiar search interface, option to create an email alert. Seems solidly Google.

5. Technorati: it definitely has a more eye-pleasing design (to me) than the majority of these sites. The first result that popped up under libraries was from 24 minutes ago and was this: http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/librar-ify-your-igoogle-start-page/
A google gadget that customizes your igoogle homepage with a new library related image from Flickr every time you log on. Very cool. I may have to reconsider my igoogle homepage....

The wikis were interesting and COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING! My favorite method of finding blogs of interest remains looking at the links from my favorite blogs. It was interesting to see the lengthy list of Public Library blogs...i'd love to see FVRL on that list!