Dear fellow bloggers:
You inspire me. I’m so glad I’ve found you. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by your productivity. You craft, knit, spin, weave, cook, raise children, travel, cycle, work, and you blog! For a while, I sort of used iGoogle to keep track of my favourite blogs. I wasn’t very dedicated and used it more as a place to bookmark sites I’d come across and wanted to remember. Since I’ve started blogging myself, I’ve become more involved in the blog world, mostly as it pertains to knitting, crocheting, yarn and such. I love it when a reader clicks that little Like button at the bottom of one of my posts. Even more exciting is when someone leaves me a comment. So, I’m trying to connect a little more with the blogs I follow. It’s not always easy, as blogs for some reason I can’t figure refuse to post some of my comments (I’m logged in!) and my carefully written comments disappear into some Interweb black hole (I’ve learned to copy my comments before hitting submit).
A few weeks back, I learned that Google was shutting iGoogle down. I asked around to see if anyone knew of a comparable replacement. Nothing grabbed me, but I have to admit I didn’t search very hard. I decided to try Google’s Reader again. I had tried it in the past in one of my short-lived efforts to stay in touch with “everything”, but I didn’t like the Reader format and so it didn’t cotton on for me. The reader in Word Press is pretty good, but of course it doesn’t include all the wonderful blogs I follow on different platforms such as blogger and posterous, etc.
Then I read Creating Laura’s post about bloglovin’ and I decided to check it out (I love it when that happens – you’re looking for something and then there it is!).
Another login and password… sigh, but I signed up. So far, it’s the perfect replacement for my iGoogle and I’m using it almost every day. The site has a clean, uncluttered interface. You can categorize your blogs and sort by blog or posting date. New entries are highlighted in a feed, making it easy to keep up-to-date with everything. Clicking on an entry marks it as read or you can click on the “mark as read” link in the feed. To save an entry for later, you can leave it unread or “mark as unread” to keep it highlighted. You need to log in to do all this.
If you get really busy or forgetful, you can also receive email notices – either a once a day summary or an individual email any time one of your blogs is updated. I like to get summary emails because otherwise I just get overwhelmed with emails. Lately, I’ve been having a look during my coffee breaks and I no longer feel like I’m missing out on all the wonderful things you are doing, especially now as everyone is so excited about fall knitting.
If you’re looking for a way to keep up with all of your favourite blogs, maybe bloglovin’ is what you’re looking for too? Or maybe you’ve found something that works well for you? I’d love to hear about it.
Yay, I’m so glad my post helped you! Also, I like your blog. =)
Thank you! I’d never heard of this before and didn’t realize I needed it, but I think I really do. What a great solution, thanks for sharing. (Also, so cool to see my blog in your screen shot! Squee!)
I’m gonna give it a go! I’ve looked it over a couple times and put it in the “later” basket. I find it so hard to keep up with everything, especially when I’ve been away from it for a while. It gets completely out of control!
I love tools that help me manage some of all the things I want to do. If only there were more hours in a day, or more days in a week… or if I somehow became financially comfortable and didn’t have to work. A girl can dream can’t she?