Bloglines

Today I've created a new Bloglines account, as per Task 8.

I have used RSS feeds for a couple of years, using Google Reader, and am familiar with using RSS feeds for journal and citation alerts and for podcasts, for example, the French language programs which are podcast by SBS from their website.

I have taught many of my academics how to set up alerts via RSS feed; many of them begin using RSS feeds, but revert to receiving their alerts by email, because the feedreader is just another site to check. I tell them it's just a matter of personal preference.

Well, on my new Bloglines account, I've subscribed to the Guardian's "Poetry workshop" RSS feed, Edna's Higher Education news headlines, and a colleague's 23 Things blog. That's one new thing -- I haven't used RSS readers to subscribe to blogs in the past. I've signed up for the blogs of 2 friends, the jeweller Rebecca Ward and the writer Ynes Sanz. Rebecca's blog led me to a new blog, a collaboration between herself and a ceramicist, based on the wallum country.

It's a bit like setting up a little webpage of favourite things, very quickly, but the Bloglines page is quite ugly (though I'm sure there's a way to customise the appearance if one had time).

Re the "public URL", I can see the template for creating it, but as my Bloglines username is an email address, I don't quite see how to use it as part of a URL. The template is:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/USERNAME