RSS Feeds: from 0 to 16 in, um...well, a short amount of time.

Let me start by saying I'm SO FAR BEHIND!!

*breathes*

Ok, so I'm very amused that what was touted as the longest/most challenging of the 23 Things was really one of the very easiest for me--I had waaaay more issues with Flickr, as I've already whined about many posts above.

So I set up my Bloglines account, and easily found myself with something like 16 feeds! I didn't really need to go looking for any because I seem to have a plethora of websites and blogs that I regulary visit, so choosing what to include was easy. I also REALLY like that I can have some public and some private--whoo! I think the appeal of Bloglines/aggregators is obvious--it prevents a whole lot of timewasting/running around on the internet, or if you have manic-obsessive tendencies (who, me?), you don't have to check 50 billion times a day to see if there's an update you've been waiting for.

I used Bloglines' search tool by accident, actually. I think while setting up my account it kicked me into some kind of default "add feeds" screen, so between that and the tutorial that was suggested we use, I had a whole lot of fun not only adding obvious rss feeds, but doing the whole cut/paste thing with the url's right into Bloglines, letting it figure out for me if a site had an rss feed. FANTASTIC. I'm all for increasing my lazy when it comes to technology! I also love that Bloglines will track when my new addiction, The Force-Cast (a SW podcast), has an update. Yeah, my iTunes at home does the same thing, but hey, sometimes I forget to look at one or the other and this way I'm double covered, right?

Topix was interesting to use, but almost too much information! I did a search and added it as an rss feed, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep it. There comes a time when enough information is enough. Technorati drove me nuts, though! I found it irritating that I couldn't just link to the article/post from Technorati for older posts (older being, oh, 5 or so hours). This perhaps is a good thing all around--it keeps the information you gather very current, no matter what the topic. I think I'd have to spend more time with Technorati to find more merit with it. To be honest, I already spend far too much time online with blogs as it is! If I keep adding them I'll never leave my computer at home, I swear.

And I'll say it again, sometimes, you CAN have too much information! I think rss feeds and blogs and podcasts are GREAT, and can reach so many people where traditional news sources have left them cold, but wow, you totally can have information overload. Do I need newsfeeds to BBC and NYT and CNN, in addition to listening to MPR/NPR like the newsjunkie I am? At least I've given up on the local tv news and the newspaper. Although I've more than made up for that with the addition of podcasts, but we won't even go there.

I'd like to add here that I would never have looked for or tried podcasts, much less rss feeds (even though I've seen them, um, everywhere), without this project, so thank you very much, 23 Things people! It's cool, it's fun, and it saves me a whole lotta time!