My favourite new blog find which is read by about a million visitors a month (I'm not exactly ahead of the curve) is Gaping Void (www.gapingvoid) He talks about marketing and technology but with a sharp-tongue and his wonderful cartoons to accompany the subjects.
I have not figured out yet how to see what my friends are reading on Google Reader -- will have to explore that as I am sure it will give me some good finds.
I also love Alltop because it lists the lesser known blogs (like mine) in addition to the ones everyone knows about.
Peder
· 1 year ago
Thanks for this post Chris. It's nice to know what others are doing to expand their reading. I use many of the same tactics and will give another look into FriendFeed. And Alltop.com is the bomb.
Scott Fillmer
· 1 year ago
My reader usually has about 300-400 blogs that I flip through with a core that I read each post, but I am always looking for new blogs to read, thanks for the list to check out.
Writer Dad
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always looking for new things for my reader to enbiggen my circle and keep it from getting tired.
Connie Crosby
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris:
My own blog reading can be described as random at best. Most of what I read is what pulls up in Google alert searches I have set up, plus recommendations via Twitter and from the blogs themselves. I periodically check in to favourite blogs, but read few consistently. This definitely keeps my reading and thinking fresh. My theory is that anything truly excellent will rise to the top and resurface again in the future if I miss it. There are just so many amazing, amazing blogs out there that to be honest I gave up trying to read or even track them all!
I do post comments on a lot of the blog posts I read, and am currently using cocomments to keep track of my comments since they are scattered so widely. That has worked successfully, and I love when blogs have the option to notify me by email when followup comments are posted.
Cheers, Connie
newmediaMike
· 1 year ago
I use my Google Reader extensively. I have 47 blogs on there divided into 5 categories based on my current interests. I have a hard time with the 47, I don't know how you people manage hundreds!
I've also started using FriendFeed and today I signed up for SocialMedian.
Twitter is always great for finding out new, interesting and varied blogs.
Oh and on Facebook, I belong to the Blog Network and it's really good for new and interesting blogs.
laurie ruettimann
· 1 year ago
Chris, what a great post. I subscribe to your RSS feed through my Google Reader.
It's tough to stay organized. I divide my favorite blogs into "categories" and "folders" so I can read my favorite blogs in a thoughtful and efficient way.
Google Reader changed my life. You can't be a serious writer if you're reading blogs in a disorganized and haphazard way.
- Laurie
Ontario Emperor
· 1 year ago
One thing that I do in Google Reader is to not only classify my feeds into categories, but to put some of the feeds into a second category called "PRIORITY-Low." When time is short, I mark all of the PRIORITY-Low items as read; when I have more time, I'll go through them.
Thanks for the post Chris. I have a mentor who has taught me there is no greater gift than the "gift of ones thinking" and it strikes me that you've once again done a great job of laying out how you think about and approach concepts, ideas and tasks, in this case, reading.
One thing that stands out to me is that you look "outside" your "fishbowl" as a regular practice. I've been thinking about this in terms of creating agency or organizational (white label) social networks and wondering how to think about it and design it in ways that keep us from simply creating a new kind of digital fishbowl? One way is to do what you suggest here - develop an intention and practices to explore through these four categories. Thank you.
Phil
· 1 year ago
Someone who always seems to have a pretty unique view on things is Hugh Macleod (gapingvoid). You may or may not agree with him, but the perspective is always refreshing. An important lens through which to view what's happening.
Christopher Zabka
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the Google Reader tips. I didn't know I could leave notes, first of all, so I will be looking into this and the keyboard shortcuts. I use Reader every day, so why not learn about its intricacies? Thanks again!
Paul Stallard
· 1 year ago
Great post Chris. I am quite new to the blogosphere and am enjoying discovering new jems each day and reading what me peers are discussing online. Some great tips and some new blogs to explore.
Ann Handley
· 1 year ago
Thanks, friend, for recommending my blog. I'm looking forward to checking out your other recommendations, too, only one of which I know.
Danka!
Beth Kanter
· 1 year ago
Exactly how do you find blogs on summize? are you searching by a particular keyword?
I'm beginning to find that Zemanta is helpful too.
Jillian C. York
· 1 year ago
I find myself doing all of those things. I keep a limit of 50 blogs in my reader for sanity's sake, but use twitter to discover new things each day.
By the way, a fellow Bostonian here (found you via Twitter's "everyone" feature, believe it or not) - sorry to have missed you at the Mashable thing.
Ulla
· 1 year ago
Chris, I use iGoogle for reading rss feeds (I just prefer it to google reader, you may find it strange, but it works for me), and Twitter for additional links. I haven't been into FriendFeed yet, due to lack of time. I try to not only scan blog posts, but to have a closer look at them so I might be able to comment, too. So the number of blogs I am following is rather limited.
Kage
· 1 year ago
Do you have any tips on how you read across so many feeds? Any speed reading tips and how do you scan across documents. I'm sure you must have over a 1000 posts a day to read through, so how do you do it and what would advise those that don't make it a job but want to stay informed do it too?
Lindsay
· 1 year ago
I have found that Zemanta, which I learned about from your blog, has pulled up some great blogs I would have never found otherwise and that are pretty relevant to what I am writing about. I put together a little write up on Zemanta here - http://blogtelling.net/2008/07/blog-me-up-check...
Thanks, Lindsay
Allen
· 1 year ago
Hey Chris, Outlook is another way to subscribe to RSS feeds. For me it is nice being able to process e-mail and blogs from the same application. -Allen
All Comments
I have not figured out yet how to see what my friends are reading on Google Reader -- will have to explore that as I am sure it will give me some good finds.
I also love Alltop because it lists the lesser known blogs (like mine) in addition to the ones everyone knows about.
My own blog reading can be described as random at best. Most of what I read is what pulls up in Google alert searches I have set up, plus recommendations via Twitter and from the blogs themselves. I periodically check in to favourite blogs, but read few consistently. This definitely keeps my reading and thinking fresh. My theory is that anything truly excellent will rise to the top and resurface again in the future if I miss it. There are just so many amazing, amazing blogs out there that to be honest I gave up trying to read or even track them all!
I do post comments on a lot of the blog posts I read, and am currently using cocomments to keep track of my comments since they are scattered so widely. That has worked successfully, and I love when blogs have the option to notify me by email when followup comments are posted.
Cheers,
Connie
I've also started using FriendFeed and today I signed up for SocialMedian.
Twitter is always great for finding out new, interesting and varied blogs.
Oh and on Facebook, I belong to the Blog Network and it's really good for new and interesting blogs.
It's tough to stay organized. I divide my favorite blogs into "categories" and "folders" so I can read my favorite blogs in a thoughtful and efficient way.
Google Reader changed my life. You can't be a serious writer if you're reading blogs in a disorganized and haphazard way.
- Laurie
Groupthink can certainly be a danger if you only read feeds from a particular category, especially when you consider that one person may attempt to influence multiple tech bloggers with a hot tip, therefore resulting in several stories that only come from one source.
One thing that stands out to me is that you look "outside" your "fishbowl" as a regular practice. I've been thinking about this in terms of creating agency or organizational (white label) social networks and wondering how to think about it and design it in ways that keep us from simply creating a new kind of digital fishbowl? One way is to do what you suggest here - develop an intention and practices to explore through these four categories. Thank you.
Thanks for the Google Reader tips. I didn't know I could leave notes, first of all, so I will be looking into this and the keyboard shortcuts. I use Reader every day, so why not learn about its intricacies? Thanks again!
Danka!
I'm beginning to find that Zemanta is helpful too.
By the way, a fellow Bostonian here (found you via Twitter's "everyone" feature, believe it or not) - sorry to have missed you at the Mashable thing.
I use iGoogle for reading rss feeds (I just prefer it to google reader, you may find it strange, but it works for me), and Twitter for additional links. I haven't been into FriendFeed yet, due to lack of time. I try to not only scan blog posts, but to have a closer look at them so I might be able to comment, too. So the number of blogs I am following is rather limited.
I put together a little write up on Zemanta here - http://blogtelling.net/2008/07/blog-me-up-check...
Thanks,
Lindsay