Thing 9: Finding Feeds

I've enjoyed exploring both topix.net and technorati. My impression is that Topix is more useful as a news source since they appear to present more varied headlines. Technorati gives a really interesting overview of the blogosphere. I think their authority ratings are interesting and useful.

I still prefer to get my news from more traditional news sources, and I am likely to pick only a few blogs to follow as well. I normally find new blogs by following links from sites I already follow. This process more closely replicates recommendations from people I already trust. But I can imagine using Technorati as a good source for finding new blogs to follow if I want to catch up on some topic that isn't addressed by my regular reading, or if I want to be able to look at what other people are talking about.

The idea of using an authority score really intrigues me. I wonder if that's something we could use as we beef up social networking on the library's websites, as a way for people to evaluate the reviews of others, or to measure the popularity or influence of a title in the collection.