23 Things - Thing #8

There are so many RSS feeds out there that keeping up is impossible. Using and exploring the different search tools for RSS feeds and blogs really proves that finding information isn't the problem, sorting through and evaluating it is. Syndic, was not as user friendly as the others search tools although I like the idea of searching by language. Looking at feeds posted in other languages could give students different view points (as long as someone could translate.) Topix was easy to search and the front page had an interesting layout, it was easy to browse the stories and setting it up to bring in local stories was a nice touch. Technorati was easy to search and I liked the layout. Feedster just wouldn't work for me and I tried it several times. Using Google blog search was easy and without all the extra stories coming up like they do in Topix and Technorati, I didn't get side track browsing through other topics. I also liked how you could subscribe to a search, it would make it easy to keep track of a current topic. BlogPulse was interesting and the tracker feature was fun to play with. There are so many features in those services that it is hard to check them all out.

To keep track of blogs and news stories I added Technorati to my Diigo account, to search for blogs I added Google Blog search. I could see using either or both of those tools with students to search for current events, teach about evaluating sources, and to look up specific events (if blogs weren't blocked at school.)