A couple of weeks ago the RSS reader I was using changed from freeware to shareware, leaving me searching for another solution. In the midst of trying to change my feeds over, however, I managed to hose my OPML file which left me back to the beginning when it came to my news feeds. I had lost around 200 feeds and had no idea how I was going to get some of them back, considering there was no way I could remember the name of each feed I had subscribed myself to (lots of sites were added on a whim when I discovered them following links).
I figured if I was going to start from the ground floor again I wanted a solution that would allow me to check my feeds from multiple computers at any location with internet access. I also wanted this solution to be free. That's where Bloglines stepped in and the love affair began.
Immediately I was able to search through the most popular feeds list and replenish a good number of my reads, which in turn led me back to many of the sites I had stumbled upon during my initial RSS collecting. I still haven't completely duplicated the list I once had, but I'm finding the Bloglines interface to be perfectly conducive to getting my daily internet fix. Feeds can be easily organized into folders, read individually or in a group, and easily added via the use of a convenient bookmarklet or search box.
The downside to my obsession with checking newsfeeds is that every time I get on the internet I just want to read. This is great for my sidebar of del.icio.us links, which I hope some of you are reading or even subscribed to, but bad for UL content. When I initially started this weblog I didn't have any problem dedicating entire posts to links I found rummaging through the web. After being around for a few months, however, I realized that if I was going to get any readers it would have to be with original content because there are lots of people out there churning out links better than I ever could.
This site goes through phases where my sidebar "Reconnaissance" links overflow with content and the main column gets sparse. We're currently in one of those cycles right now, but I think the Bloglines novelty is starting to wear off and the more links I read, the more content eventually comes from ideas stewing in my kettlehead. Bear with me for now, and make sure you're at least noticing the links in the sidebar. The only person I knew for sure that read my links is currently on internet hiatus, so I'm wondering if the links I post are simply for my own posterity. Either way, remember that the links have their own site (linked in the sidebar) and their own RSS feed (also linked in the sidebar).
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