You've got your RSS reader set up (your newly created Bloglines account) and you've added an RSS feed, let's focus on locating even more RSS feeds for your reading and information seeking pleasure. First off, a reminder that when you visit your favorite web sites, look for feed icons, whcih are the clearest indication that the site offers some form of RSS feed. The feed icons will typically be displayed somewhere in the site navigation.
What about searching for RSS feeds?
There are a number of RSS search tools - these include:
Blogline's Search tool. This lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
Feedster. This is one of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts.
Topix.net. This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlets RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
Syndic8.com.Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
Google Blog Search. This one is limited to blogs. Once you find the blog you are looking for, add the main blog URL just as you added those from your co-workers in our previous lesson.
Discovery Exercise
Some things you might want to think about:
- Which method of finding feeds was easiest - going to your favorite sites or searching for them?
- Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing?
- What kind of unusual feeds did you find on your travels?
Just one last piece of feed icon information. In Febuary of 2006, the adoption of standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began helping to stop the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by many websites and browsers, including Opera and FireFox, where it displays in the address bar:
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