Monthly Archives: September 2008

Using Google Reader’s trends to find blogs of value

Posted on September 26, 2008 | 4 Comments
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Someone on Twitter yesterday asked about how people use Google Reader‘s Trends feature. I had a quick reply then, but I thought I’d blog about it as well.

I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds in Reader. If I see an interesting website, and it has a feed, I tend to subscribe, because only by reading over a few days can I really determine if the content is of value to me. (All websites should offer feeds for people like me, by the way.)

While I’m reading my feeds, I use Google Reader’s features to share articles I find particularly interesting or star them for later reference. I may see something I want to blog about, for instance, so I’ll star it. I also email articles quite frequently if I know they will be of interest to someone in particular. Google Reader’s Trends captures all of this activity.

When the number of feeds becomes overwhelming, and I need to winnow them down — usually about once a month — I’ll check the trends. The feeds I keep are the ones that Trends shows I’ve been sharing, starring and emailing. I’ll also check the posting activity. Feeds that are marked inactive, or haven’t had new posts in over a month, I’ll definitely drop.

If you use Google Reader, do you check the trends?

Check out my shared items on Google Reader.

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Posted in Geeking Out

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Quick tip for StumbleUpon: Instant reviews

Posted on September 22, 2008 | 1 Comment

One bookmarking tool isn’t enough for me. I use Delicious for research projects and sites I frequently visit, and I like to keep it clean and organized. So I need another tool for those sites that catch my eye and I might return to someday.

StumbleUpon, although not nearly as effective at organizing bookmarks as Delicious, works great for this purpose. Using the StumbleUpon toolbar, all I have to do to bookmark something is hit the I like it! button. Usually, I don’t even have to come up with tags. And even if I never return to the site via my StumbleUpon page, I can at least share with other Stumblers.

Here’s a quick tip to make stumbling even easier. Before clicking the I like it! button, highlight a sentence or two in the page’s text that describes the page or what you like about it. Then click I like it! and the highlighted text will be entered automatically as the page’s review, prefaced by the words “From the page.” When you return to browse through your bookmarks, the captured text should jog your memory as to why you liked the site in the first place.

Visit me on StumbleUpon.

Visit me on Delicious.

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    Posted in Geeking Out

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    Identifying a personal brand

    Posted on September 11, 2008 | 3 Comments

    I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do next. I think I’ve been trying to figure this out for years. One tool I am using to help me answer this question is blogging. I have a semi-private blog that I use as a journal, where I can record my ideas, wants and frustrations in relative safety, since it isn’t widely read. The purpose is to try to sort out what I really want to do.

    The Web 2.0 Wednesday post this week at the Bamboo Project Blog was about personal branding. I think I am one of those people who doesn’t really know what my personal brand is, or what I want it to be. One of the exercises suggested was to put my blog into Wordle to see what brand emerged in the tag cloud. Well, I didn’t like the results. I think that’s because this blog reflects what I am doing now, rather than what I want to be doing.

    Then I put in my freeform ideas blog, and things became clearer.

    Try it yourself, and see what emerges.

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    Posted in Notebook

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