Thursday, April 19, 2007

tools to use

I'm experimenting with two tools right now. . .

1. Google Reader: with 14 and counting Grace blogs, and others I read regularly, I'm trying to figure out a way to keep up to date. I'm trying Google Reader and I'm liking it. Google Reader allows you to "subscribe" to blogs with a button you put in your browser bar and then read all your blogs in a single window instead of clicking to each separate site. There are many other blog reader/aggregators out there, but Google is getting as good of reviews as any of them.

Here's what the window looks like. . . .


If you use another reader you like, share the love in a comment. If you're looking for a way to stay up to date, but simplify your blog reading experience, check out Google Reader.

2. Snap Shots: Have you noticed the new little captions by the links on "life together?" Roll over one and see what happens. Essentially, the linked content occurs in a little window. I think its pretty neat, but I'm not sure if it clutters up the blog and is more annoying then helpful. What do you think?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, I don't read that many blogs, and the ones I do read, I enjoy going to their site for the whole "environment" experience. For example, Life Together has links that I enjoy exploring, as does the Fide-o blog: http://www.fide-o.blogspot.com/.

I have a personalized Google home-page, though that links to your blog (and a few others), so I can see when the newest article is posted.

As for the Snap Shots icons, I'm not a huge fan. It is a redundant feature, as I use Firefox as my browser and have the CoolIris plugin: http://www.cooliris.com/Site/index.html.

That one always works...

Kevin Heldt said...

Thanks for the heads up on Google Reader, Tim -- pretty cool. Just set it up for a few blogs -- do you know if it flags as unread if there are simply new comments? Or do you have to still visit the page for that?

Tim said...

Great question, Kevin. . . I don't think it flags as unread when somebody leaves a new comment, but you can subscribe to an individual comment thread:

1. Just open the comment window.
2. Push your handy dandy subscribe button in your browser tool bar. If you haven't found that button, its under one of the set-up tabs.

When comments fizzle out for that post, just delete that RSS from your reader.

A bit clunky, but it works...