Now that I’ve got my Bloglines account all up and running (just a reminder, my public feed can be found here) it’s time to try out Thing #9: Searching For Feeds.  The feeds already loaded into my account are ones that I heard about from friends or found through other blogs.  Now I’m going to try out three search sites (suggested by the OCL Web Things blog) and see what I can find on the topics of “library”, “hockey”, and “gardening”.

 I started with topix.net.  I subscribed to their general sports headlines feed with limited success.  The feed loaded — but gave me sports headlines from five months ago.  I then searched Topix for “library 2.0″ and subscribed to a feed of blogs using that term.  I got recent hits but the format of the feed made it so I couldn’t easily see where the information was coming from.  It’s not ideal.  Although I think it would be handy for searching for information on a really specific topic that brings up fewer hits but more relevant ones.  Searching for “gardening” brought up a feed that included his about American Idol, Indy racing and some obituaries.  Searching for “vegetable gardening” brought up tons of interesting stuff.  Subscribing to that feed and the “library 2.0″ one took me two tries.  I think I’d give Topix a B-.

Next I tried Syndic8 and had very littlesuccess.  The interface was clunky and outdated looking and left me feeling confused and overwhelmed.  My search terms brought me nothing.  Nothing as in “no hits at all”.  I then used the subject headings provided and narrowed down to Sports - Hockey - New Jersey Devils.  But when I subscribed I got five ads for every genuine hockey article.  I’d give Syndic8 an F. 

Next up was Technorati.  I love Technorati.  It worked like a charm!  While it didn’t offer quick access to feeds, it does a significantlybetter job of finding blogs that are relevant to my search.  The search for “library 2.0″ brought  up all the important blogs I expected to see, similarly the search for “hockey”.  The “vegetable gardening” search brought up tons  of great-looking blogs I can’t wait to explore more.  Technorati also has a nifty little rating system to show you how many times other blogs have linked back to each blog that comes up in your results list.  While this isn’t a perfect system for measuring a blog’s worth, it’s a great way to get a feel for how blogs work together.  I’d give Technorati a solid A.

In my experience though, the best way to find feeds is to start with a few blogs, and use them to branch out.  Follow their blogrolls and click on the links they refer to in posts.  Chances are you’ll find  more and more blogs that way that speak to what you’re interesting in.

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