Use Bloglines to Stay in the Loop

How many web sites do you visit each day? Five, ten, twenty? Imagine how much simpler it would be if you could visit just ONE site, and receive the content from all the rest right there.

Now visit Bloglines, and you're all set.

Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator, which funnels all of your favorite feeds into one place via a technology called Really Simple Syndication (RSS). You can tell if a site uses RSS if you see any of these images:


Even if you're not a heavy net surfer, Bloglines makes it much easier to digest a variety of news sources in a very short amount of time. Everyone should be in-the-know about a little bit o' everything, and Bloglines helps make that happen.

Before I learned about Bloglines, I mindlessly wandered around the web, desperately trying to find interesting sites to look at and new things to keep my mind occupied with. Now, with new sites popping up each day, Bloglines introduces me to the coolest things the net has happening.

Here's what the site looks like. Imagine it as an email client for your web sites. Your sites are listed in the left column. When you click on a site link, the site's content pops up in the right column. Many sites come with both full stories and images, others provide a headline and brief, and all supply a link. You subscribe to the news feeds you want to read, and the rest is history.


I would highly suggest a few sites, which are ideal Bloglines subscriptions: BoingBoing, Lifehacker, and of course, PopCult.

If you are further interested in setting up a Bloglines account, I would be happy to help. I can even export my news feeds to your new account so that you have a place to start. From there, you can delete sites I am reading and add your own.

There are many other RSS readers available online as well; I just happen to prefer Bloglines.

Don't let your internet experience be wasted! Try out Bloglines and see just how much more enjoyable your surfing can be!


Don't like my explanation? Need further information? Check out Bloglines on Wikipedia.

Ten Web Apps for Students

I rejoined the ranks of academia this year, and have recently discovered several web applications that have made education much more enjoyable and simplified. I realized today, however, while talking to some classmates, that I may be the only person at my university that knows about these pearls of wisdom. So, for the unaware, here are ten web sites every student should utilize.

1. Google Docs
Google Docs allows you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online with the use of a web-based word processor. You can log into your account from any computer, thus eliminating the need for those hard-to-keep-track-of flash drives. While Google Docs is a very basic word processor, it enables the capability to export your document to a variety of sources: Word, Open Office, HTML, RTF, PDF, etc. I use a combination of Open Office at home and Google Docs on the go to eliminate facing off with the nasty Word 2007 monster that my college insists on using.

2. Delicious
You'll hear me talking a lot about Delicious. That's because it is my absolute favorite web utility. Delicious is a social bookmarking site that allows you to access your bookmarks from any location. Simply create a Delicious account, and add links to your bookmark index either manually or with the use of Mozilla Firefox's Delicious bookmarking add-on. This feature eliminates the need to email yourself important web sites; instead, you can keep track of them all, and organize them by tags, through Delicious.

3. Notely
Notely is a web application designed specifically for students by students. It helps you organize data while on the go. Notely features a calendar, a to-do list, a homework organizer, course management, and the ability to write and save notes, keep a notebook, and organize links, contacts and files. I use Notely primarily for their file upload tool. This is a great place to be able to retrieve documents I've written while at home when I'm at the college. I simply upload my docs to Notely, and can retrieve them from any system I'm able to log onto later.

4. Google Notebook
Google Notebook is a godsend that I have dreamed of for a long time. The application allows you to save pieces of web pages - text, photos and the like - to a clipboard-like notebook for easy viewing later. You can create multiple notebooks and organize your web clippings into respective categories as well.

5. Bubbl.us
Bubbl.us is an online brainstorming application that eliminates scribbling on hundreds of sheets of paper to come up with a plan of action. Bubbl.us allows you to create colorful mind maps online and share them with friends and family.

6. Stixy
Stixy is a bulletin board for all of your online stuff. This web application allows you to create online projects, scrapbooks and research files by adding photos, documents, notes and to-do lists directly onto your Stixyboards. Stixy utilizes widgets than can be dragged onto each bulletin board to create a visually stunning and well-organized online project.

7. Bib Me
Say goodbye to Works Cited and Reference pages, and say hello to the application that does it for you. Bib Me allows you to search for books, films, articles and web sites, add your sources to a bibliography, and download the bibliography in either MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian format. Seeing as how I despise bibliographies and everything about them, I utilize this service quite often.

8. Lit Sum
LitSum is the largest free online literature summary site that offers free study guides, full chapter summaries and analysis, quotes, topics for discussion, style, themes and character analysis. This is an amazing place to find ideas for literature papers. It's an English major's dream come true.

9. Refdesk
Refdesk features acronyms, almanacs, currency converters, dictionaries, maps, public records, encyclopedias, translators and more, as well as and a whole host of search engines. If it's a question you'd ask your reference librarian, you'll likely find the answer on Refdesk all by yourself.

10. AllPeers
AllPeers is an application that allows you to share large files with friends and family right in your web browser. You can privately and securely share web pages, music, videos and photos with an individual or a group. Sharing becomes as simple as dragging and dropping files into your contacts' folders through AllPeers, which also has a handy Mozilla Firefox add-on available. For educational purposes, AllPeers can be used to share documents and other files with classmates or professors easily and efficiently.

Feel free to try these applications on for size. The best feature all of these utilities offer is that they are 100 percent free. Did I miss a site that you utilize to make your life easier? If so, please comment below.