Today I decided to find out exactly what an aggregator and an RSS was. Every time I pictured my search for the RSS and the aggregator, I couldn't help but picture myself out in the wild, hunting down R.O.U.Ss (rodents of unusual size - any Princess Bride fans out there?).
Turns out, RSSs are NOT related to R.O.U.Ss, and neither are aggregators. I found this out after I spent a long time linking blogs up to my personal blog, as you can see to the right. I thought that perhaps this is what an RSS feed service was, but then I logged into my Google account, which magically showed me "Google Reader" - and I realized that the two aren't exactly linked up. I then stumbled upon an article by Will Richardson on Stephen's Lighthouse Blog, which talks about what an RSS guide really is. I understand now: an RSS basically collects all the information that you want from blogs, and feeds them into one place for you. This way, instead of clicking through a billion weblogs, they magically all end up on one page for me.
Technology really is amazing. I mean, the RSS feeds "make it possible to 'subscribe' to the content that is created on a particular Weblog so they no longer have to visit the blog itself to get it" (Richardson 2005). Whoever thought that the pace of life would be so fast that I wouldn't even have time to click? Or more importantly, whoever thought that the computer gods would deem clicking a waste of time?
Richardson gives instructions on how to sign up for bloglines, but I already have an account with Google so I'm trying to stick with Google Reader. I'm following almost twenty blogs, including my classmates and those on the recommended list for the course. I'm interested to see how well I cope with all the information that will be waiting for me when I find time to sit down in front of the computer at the end of the day.
Some questions to investigate (feel free to point me in the right direction):
1. Can I add more links (not just my facebook link) in the panel on the right?
2. Can I link this blog to my Google Reader so that people who check out my blog can see the shared items on my Google Reader?
References: “Blogging and RSS — The ‘What's It?’ and ‘How To’ of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators” at http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml
1 day ago
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Those are good questions you raise at the bottom...and I don't know the answer to either of them. I had never thought about whether the shared things in your google reader could be shared through your blogger blog. Maybe send an email to the blogger people and see what they suggest.
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