Yesterday I mentioned that I don’t use a RSS feed to read blogs or know when they are updated. What was I thinking?!?!
After posting last night, I did some investigating, set up a Bloglines account, added a few of my usual blogs, and gave it a try.
I had a few “issues” that I have since solved. I didn’t like that I had to go to the Bloglines site to see what, if any, new posts were out there. Then tonight I found the Firefox add-on that notifies me of new posts! Cool! It’s a subtle icon in the bottom right corner that gets a little red dot when a site is updated. One click and my Bloglines page opens in a separate tab ready for me to read!
And I added a right-click context menu entry for subscribing to a site (a right-click automatically adds the site to my feed list) so I don’t have to go through the Bloglines site to make an addition.
Will Bloglines save me time? Most definitely. It’s convenient looking at a list rather than clicking through my bookmarks and checking individual sites.
Given all of the pros, I do have one con. I like reading the actual blogs – the visual appeal is so much nicer than the Bloglines format. If I’m in a time crunch situation, I can read a post on Bloglines. If not, I always have the option of knowing a new post is out there and going to that individual site.
So, after 24 hours of experimenting, do I recommend using a RSS feed? Yes! Even if it is for only seeing what’s new and saving the time of visiting each individual site when there’s nothing new.
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Glad it’s working out for you. I personally love Bloglines.
I’m also able to check blogs I like from any computer hooked up to the internet by just going to Bloglines and logging in. Good Stuff!
I know what you mean about seeing the actual blog. Do you know that you can just click on the post title or Blog title and it will open in a new tab? I do it a lot because I want the blog author’s stats to register another reader.