9th Nov, 2009

Thing #9 – Blogs

I am somewhat confused about how the  RSS feeds work and why they are  not always available on sites that have blogs.  For example, on our Oakridge web site we can access a blog set up by our principal but there was not a RSS feed available. Is this because it is a non-public part of the web site? Teachers have to sign in to participate in the blog.

I found some interesting sites just  by searching for popular blog sites, there was information available on the 25 Most Popular Blogs of 2009. It was surprising that some of these sites did not appear to have that many subscribers to the information. Some of the best sites are already located on Bloglines and you can easily add them to your feeds. However, I don’t think I put some of my choices in the folders correctly but I can still find the feeds. Is a feed the same as a link? I’m getting confused about some of the tech jargon!

I found that it was easiest to copy and paste the URL. I could select a folder for these feeds. When I selected a recomendation from the Bloglines lists, I didn’t know how to select a folder to put it in. I did find some interesting sites but they did not have an RSS feed and could be bookmarked instead. They seemed like they were interactive but must not have been. There are many blogs out there and it was hard to determine which ones are of a high quality.

Responses

I’ll try to answer a couple of your questions -

Why don’t all blogs (including your principal’s blog) have an RSS feed available?
Usually, an RSS feed button is available in widget form. Some blog themes don’t have that widget available, some blog authors just don’t use that widget in their blog.

Is a feed the same as a link?
A feed brings the information to you in bloglines, you need to click on a link and it will then take you to a site.

Yes, there are millions of blogs out there. That’s why I find social bookmarking so helpful. I know that they don’t bookmark sites unless they’re valuable.
I also appreciate the fact that some of my colleagues make their bloglines accounts public. That way, I can see what they’ve already determined are high quality and worth my time.

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