Aggregation

   I wrote earlier about looking at where hits to my journal are coming from. In examining the various statistics provided to me by StatCounter, I noticed some regularly recurring locations and ISPs. That's the coolest; the knowledge that I have regular readers. At least I assume that there aren't several people in, for example, Oakville, Ontario, using Cogeco Cable, visiting my site. I suspect my friend, Paula (Queen of the Servins)(don't ask) comes by almost daily (thank you, Paula).
   What interested me was the fact that Paula drops by almost daily, regardless of whether I have updated recently, or not. Perhaps some others of you do as well. I know I used to spend hours clicking on each and every one of the sixty plus blogs I read, only to find that only about 20% of them had updated since that last time I checked. A definite time waster.
   Then I discovered Bloglines.com. Bloglines is a web based syndicated feed reader. If you are staring at your monitor right now in uncomprehending, slack jawed blankness, I will explain. Many blogs and journals provide what is called syndication feeds. AOL journals do, automatically. You don't even have to turn them on. Every time an AOL journaler publishes a new entry the AOL journals software generates syndication feeds. In this case, RSS and atom feeds.
   What good are they? Well, you can get a piece of software called a feed reader that will go and look at all your favourite blogs every time you sign on to the Internet, and tell you which ones have been updated since you last checked. Then, you need only visit the ones with new entries. A huge time saver.
   Bloglines is for those that are not comfortable downloading and installing software. Just go to the website, create an account, enter the urls of the blogs/journals you read, and it will generate a list for you, which you can visit in your web browser whenever you want.
   I just looked at 'my feeds' on bloglines. I am subscribed to 65 feeds. Probably fewer than twenty of them update daily. Which means that when I click on 'my feeds' in the morning, I probably don't have to spend the time to visit forty or more of my favourite blogs that day.
   Another time saver is the fact that I can read many of the blog entries right there in the the reader on the bloglines site. I don't have to click through to the journal in question unless I am moved to comment. Not all of the blog feeds offer the full entry in the reader, but many of them do. Those that don't typically have revenue generating ads on their site, and if you don't click through, they don't get paid.
   So, if you are finding that you take an inordinate amount of time browsing through blogs and journals, check out a dedicated software feed reader, or Bloglines.com.