Oh where oh where is my new favorite blog?

Similar to library school, when I was learning to evaluate results from different databases and search engines, I used the same subject term in each of the search tools: productivity.

Some of the things that initially stand out: Feedster tells you how many words a particular blog entry is, Technorati allows you to search in other languages, and Bloglines has a nice easy subscribe link.

One of things I found confusing is searching for feeds and searching through posts. My sense is that searching through the feeds will allow me to thematically find a blog in which the focus is productivity, and searching through posts will highlight individual postings in which the word productivity is used in the text or tag. The theme of the blog may be a personal journal or a blog that reviews hand lotions, but if the keyword areas it will be returned. This would be a high recall, but low relevance.

I found Productivity Cafe through Bloglines. I scanned the first page, and saw that a few of the blog posts interested me, especially one on increasing effectiveness by using names and virtual assistants.

I really like Technorati, and have my photo blog registered with them. With the cooler weather, I find myself in the kitchen more trying new recipes and baking. Using Technorati, I found a few cupcake and baking blogs, with recipes and suggestions. One that I am definitely subscribing to is Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Another way that I find blogs and feeds is similar to the technique pearl growing. I find a blog that I like, and take a look at the blogroll the author has listed. A blogroll is a list of blogs that the owner of the web pages follows and reads. (Check out my blogroll on the right hand side of the page.) By clicking through to other blogs, I will eventually find some that interest me.