16 - RSS Feeds

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? What kind of unuseful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

I generally find plenty of feeds just while trolling through the web, but when I'm looking for specific feeds, I like to use the "blogrolls" of sites I already read. I've found that especially helpful with library-related feeds! Most blogs have a list of some sort that contains at least some of the blogs that the blogger reads on a regular basis. I consider those to be pre-selected good reading!! When I have to search for a particluar topic, Technorati is the engine I use most these days. I've used Syndic8 in the past, but it seemed to be more confusing to use - not quite as useful as Technorati's social aspects - knowing how many other bloggers subscribe to a particular feed, how many consider a feed their "favorite" and so on. I've found LOTS of unuseful feeds in my travels - mostly feeds that were started with the best of intentions, then left to wither on the 'net due to lack of posts. I have to go through my bloglines account occasionally and get rid of feeds that haven't posted anything for a while. Firefox (the alternative browser) has been really helpful in finding feeds that I might have missed. If there is a feed on a site, the browser gives me a little hint that it is subscribable. That comes in handy to grab feeds I wouldn't have realized are available!!

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Robin Hastings
robin.hastings@gmail.com