23Things #8 RSS, Bloglines and feeds

RSS became useful to me a few years ago when I found an interesting source of news in the field of breastfeeding promotion. Nervously I subscribed to the service and happily received regular emails although I didn't appreciate how automated they were.

Since then my google searches would often offer results at blogs that were motherloads of the kind of information I enjoyed. I'd bookmark them, but found it difficult to find the time to visit them regularly. I signed up to receive regular Bloglet emails from Peter Scott's Library Blog - http://blog.xrefer.com (where is that now?).

Then Bloglet (or was it another service) suggested I move to Feedblitz several months ago. Feedblitz made it very easy to subscribe to the motherloads of information I was now discovering in blogs, each of which introduced me to other interesting blogs. Daily emails were full of fascinating updates - but also links to even more interesting sources.

I'd see blogrolls in blog sidebars everywhere and wanted one. Some were powered by Bloglines. I couldn't see anyway to get a blogroll from Feedblitz, but changing feed service wasn't attractive - wouldn't this mean going through a fiddly process of copying the feeding URLs? Still, for the sake of learning (and a blogroll) I set up my own account and noticed this 'import' option. Sure enough when I checked back at Feedblitz - they had a straightforward process to export to an OPML file.

It was worthwhile - it is now so much easier to scan the sources I like - although it is still a time-challenge when a new post sends me surfing.

So for my #8 I decided to work out how to get a blogroll. Super-easy. Then just another fiddle with the template and there it is.