Blogroll 2.0
When I relaunched User Effect, I made the decision to include a blogroll, partly to point visitors to useful resources and partly to reciprocate the generosity of other bloggers. Unfortunately, I never got over my major issue with blogrolls; they're inherently static. There's no way for me to point out if someone in my network had something really great to say this week, or even (in limited space) to give my readers a glimpse of what to expect if they click on the link.So, I was browsing along today and came across a widget called BlogRush. It's a good concept; you specify your niche, the widget displays blog entries that match that niche, and for every page view you create for other bloggers, your recent entries get mentioned on other BlogRush widgets. It's a nice idea, but it took about two hours to see that it suffered from the usual problem: the content was too broad and commercialized. I'm all for generating a bit of extra traffic, but not if it compromises my content.
That's when it hit me: why not build a new kind of blogroll? Instead of links to a static list of blogs, I'll take my favorite posts from my personal must-read blogs and highlight them. That way, my readers get specific, hand-selected, and recent content from other bloggers I know and respect.
I won't claim it's a completely original idea. Many bloggers do a weekly or occasional post highlighting things worth reading. Unfortunately, I've never been much of a collector; I notice things when I notice them, and then I move on. So, in that spirit and in deference to my own personality quirks, I've added "Blogroll 2.0" to the sidebar of User Effect. Enjoy.
Dr. Pete
· Sunday, October 14You mean my idea isn't completely original? I'm crushed :)
Thanks, Niko; I'll have to check that out. I've been using Netvibes and haven't been on Google Reader in a while. For now, I've just hand-coded it, but I think the idea of being able to integrate selections from your own feeds is a pretty obvious next step that we'll probably see more of.
Alexis Brion
· Wednesday, October 24Hi Pete,
I added your blog to my blogroll because I really like it and think it has a similar topic as mine. Of course, linking back would be nice from you but I understand that your blogroll has only "selected" links :) Depends on you.
My blog: http://www.designvsart.com/blog/
Regards,
Alex
Niko Nyman
· Sunday, October 14If you use Google Reader for reading feeds, you can "share" posts on your public Reader page and get a widget that displays the most recent shared posts. Does the same thing you're after, I guess?