Newsfeeds (Exercise #9)

Playing around with these different search tools was interesting because it reminded me of learning how to search databases and other library resources, and how even though most databases have similar search functions, each one is slightly different.

I thought Blogline's Search tool was easy once I clicked on the "advanced search" option and saw that I could search for feeds instead of posts. When I searched for the word library among posts, I got lots of random blogs. When I search for the word library among feeds, I found blogs and feeds that specifically pertained to libraries.

I liked that with Feedster I could search for blogs, news, or podcasts. I enjoyed playing around with the podcasts. I found it harder to get more specific though with the kind of searches that I did.

I had no idea that there was a Library and Information Science Search Engine, so I really enjoyed playing with LisZen. I enjoyed doing searches for library-related topics. I also liked just browsing some of the blogs. I did a search for information literacy and found some really interesting blogs, like the Information Literacy Weblog. Some fun blogs I found while browsing the List of Blogs included Annoyed Librarian and Library Games. It's truly amazing to see how many librarians are blogging.

I liked Technorati. I thought it was easy and fun to use. The tags on the homepage reminded me of Flickr. It was fun looking at the WTF section (though I thought WTF stood for something else besides "Where's the Fire"). It's always interesting with these kinds of websites to see people who become really obsessed and dedicated to defending whatever it is that they feel so passionately about. I can't imagine Technorati having as much potential for my work as LisZen, but I can see how it would be fun.