Smoky Mountain Family Historian

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

I've been asked to comment on my switch to Google Reader from Bloglines and compare the two.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who provided the information on exporting my subscriptions from Bloglines so they could be imported quickly without having to enter each and every one!

Google Reader appears to be delivering all my feeds. I've pretty much quit using Bloglines. There are things I like better about Bloglines. I was able to use the keystroke S to navigate from one blog feed to the next quickly. It worked even between different feed categories so that I could click on the first feed in the first category and work my way down. With Google Reader, the S keystroke doesn't work. I can still use the J keystroke to navigate down blog feeds, but the quick keystroke appears to be gone--or I haven't found it yet. If you don't mind your feeds being all scrambled in the order of receipt, you can use the J keystroke all the way down through all feeds.

I no longer have to reload Janice's page when I click to read her blog. It works like a charm in Google Reader. All of Glenn's posts are being delivered. See my original post if you don't remember the context! I compared both blogs for awhile, and the only two I seemed to be having trouble with were these two.

Some feeds arrive faster via Bloglines; others arrive faster via Google Reader. I guess it ultimately depends on which reader you like best, and if all your feeds work with your reader. I'm still maintaining feeds at both locations, but I'm generally hitting the "mark all read" at Bloglines and reading things at Google Reader.

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Imported

Thanks to several of you who pointed out that it's really quite simple to export Bloglines subscriptions and import them into Google Reader, I now have all my feeds at Google Reader. I haven't deleted them from Bloglines yet, but I'm looking forward to checking out how well all the feeds work!

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

On Blog Aggregators/Readers

I set up my blog feeds in Bloglines a long time ago. I've stuck to it for a long time, but I'm debating switching to Google Reader for everything. I have two "problematic" blog feeds in Google Reader now. For some reason, when I click through from Bloglines to one of Janice's posts, I get an "HTTP 403 Forbidden" message and then have to reload the page. That works, but it gets tiresom, so I've set her up through Google Reader. My other problematic blog feed from Bloglines is the well-known Knoxville blogger Glenn Reynolds known as Instapundit. About a month ago, I started getting only one to three posts a day through the feed at Bloglines. I get them all using Google Reader. It makes me wonder how many other posts I'm missing with Bloglines. It won't be fun adding all the feeds, but once it gets done. I've resisted making a complete switch, but I may make the switch gradually as I have time. By the way, I've emailed the problem with Glenn's blog to Bloglines, but they've not responded with a solution. Do they even read their comments? Can you tell that I'm growing increasingly frustrated?

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Partial vs. Full Feeds

I'm a blog reader who reads my feeds through an RSS reader. I definitely prefer feeds that are full. Plagiarism Today has an article that talks about full vs. partial feeds and concludes that "there is little business justification for keeping your feeds partial" and that "if you are running a partial feed and are considering the switch, there are ways to provide better security for your feed." It's a thought-provoking article.

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Monday, November 26, 2007

Top 100 Breaking News Blogs

Carnegie Mellon did a study. Instapundit came out on top.

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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Genealogical Discussion at ACL

On Thursday at lunch, several ACL members who were pursuing their own genealogy or helping library researchers with theirs met. A quick round-up of some of the resources mentioned at our roundtable discussion.

Must-Have Books for Identifying Records
The Handybook for Genealogists, 11th ed. (Everton, 2005)
Redbook: American State, County, and Town Sources, 3rd ed. (Ancestry, 2004)

For Native American Research
Lennon, Rachel Mills. Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal. (Genealogical, 2002)

Paid Databases
Ancestry.com
Footnote.com

Blogs
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
GenealogyBlog.com

Ordering Pension Files from National Archives

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