Entries from Earthling - EarthLink blog tagged with 'Blogs'
On The Product Blogs
A round-up of what's happening on the EarthLink product blogs
Some Friday Hehs
Funny and hehful things from the internets.
From The Comments: MovableType On Web Hosting
A belated shoutout to Earthling reader Mark Read who has installed blog software Movable Type on his EarthLink business hosting account. Check out his MT-powered blog at Goreads.com. Mark provides some tips and observations from his install:
Paleo-Future Edges Out Workgrub
Congratulations to the blog Paleo-Future.com, for sneaking past Workgrub 17 votes to 15 in Battle of the Blogs 3. You've won a spot over on the right under "Recommended Sites" and untold virtual fame and fortune in the hearts and minds of Earthling readers.
Battle Of The Blogs 3: Themeless
Donna suggested Eye On Albuquerque be included in the next battle, and I'm going to work on a special local/hyperlocal blogs battle to put that to the test. Today I'm offering an unthemed and miscellaneous battle between a few of my recent finds. Evaluate each on the likelihood you'll come back and visit them again or even subscribe via RSS.
Best Use Of A Blog Header
Noah Kagan recently added a "submit a quote" to OKDork.com's header image, and it's worthy of a best. It's a total click/refresh magnet, and it also provides something of some value to readers.
Web Mail Blog Makes Search Results More Useful
- Email Guy John Foltz has made searching the full content of his blog much easier.
Consider These Blogs
I've seen this in a few places now and wanted to make sure you all have seen it as well. It's a list of some lesser-known but really good blogs. There are more suggestions in the comments there, and if you have any additional hidden gems to suggest, feel free to slide them over in the comments below.
Web Mail Product Blog Launches
Have a question or suggestion about EarthLink Web Mail, or just want to stay informed about upcoming features? Email guy and Senior Product Manager John Foltz is putting the finishing touches on the new EarthLink Web Mail Product Blog, and invites you to stop by, kick the tires, and say hello. You'll also soon be able to get to it via a link on Web Mail itself as well.
Blogging with Jeff: Broadcasts and Conversations
In a recent Earthling survey, over 1/3 of those who responded said they don't currently have a blog of their own but are thinking about starting one. How and where you choose to host your blog can make a big difference as far as how it feels to your readers, and the types of interactions you can expect. My friend Jeff has gone from owning zero to owning two of his own blogs in the last year. I've been quizzing him via e-mail to get some insight into the differences between his two blogs, and how his decisions about software and hosting affected the character of each. Read on for our e-mail interview.
Some Of Your Blogs
What do an ex-paratrooper, a documentarian, a yoga instructor, a buyer for a bookstore, a playwright, and an art aficionado all have in common?
How Do You Use RSS In The Classroom?
Earthling reader and edublogger John Blake sent me a really interesting write-up of the ways he's incorporated personal publishing and RSS into his classroom practice. He's also wondering how other teachers have used it in their curricula, so I wanted to publish what he sent me and throw it open to any other teachers who'd like to share their ideas. In the meantime I'll do some research as well and help develop a list of resources. Please add any suggestions, anecdotes, and stories to the comments of this blog entry.
Why, Hello
A red caterpillar interrupts the very excellent Canvas vs. Gallery session to make a point about performance.
Why Read Blogs: Roll Your Own News Coverage
This is part three in a series of ideas about how blogs can be useful in your life, beyond the "blogs are great" headlines. Part one was about staying in touch, and part two was about choosing knowable sources.
Ask Laptop Freak Takes Battle Of The Blogs 2
In the final tally, laptop help blog Ask Laptop Freak defeated the other blogs with 21 votes. As the tag line indicates, "Your laptop computer doesn’t work? Need help or support for your notebook? Ask the Laptop Freak!" I'll be adding it to the list of "recommended sites" on the right.
TypePad Outage and EarthLink E-mails
The blogging platform TypePad had a service outage yesterday. Coming out of that, Kris, a TypePad blogger and EarthLink customer, brought to my attention that TypePad is having problems with its system e-mail messages (telling you you have a new comment, for example) not getting to EarthLink e-mail addresses. If you are an EarthLink customer who uses TypePad, I just wanted to give you a heads-up that we're working on finding out what's going on. So far things look as they should on the EarthLink side, but our e-mail folks are on it as is TypePad and we'll work on getting this resolved quickly. I'll keep you posted.
Battle of the Blogs 2: Blogs That Ask You To Ask
In this battle I aim to (a)discover new "Ask so-and-so" blogs that I don't know about, and (b)find out which reigns supreme in the field. Please familiarize yourself with the combatants before voting, and ask yourself, "Which of these am I most likely to visit again or most often?"
Battle Of The Blogs 1 Draws To A Close
Sorry, cops. The "What's That Bug?" site/blog beat the official LAPD blog by a score of 24 votes to 10 in the inaugural Battle of the Blogs. There are no losers here, and I wish both combatants the best. The LAPD blog is invited to compete again, against some other blog in a future Battle of the Blogs.
Poll Time Again -- Battle of the Blogs One
In an effort to expand our reading horizons, yours and mine, I'm offering a poll wherein I'd like you to look at two blogs of my choosing, and vote for the one you think you're more likely to visit again. The winning blog will also earn a limited run in my "recommended sites" list on the right.
Stay Classy, Blogosphere
Since the end of last week, a horde of bloggers have been getting in line to either condemn or lionize Robert Scoble's incendiary reaction to news reports about the delay of Windows' launch of their new operating system Vista. It feels like a compulsory writing assignment if you want to consider yourself an A-list blogger. Should I be covering this?
Why Read Blogs: Choose Knowable Sources
A popular misconception is that blogs are for ranting and raving and communicating extreme opinions to the masses. This is part 2 in a series pointing out some simple ways blogs might be useful to you. Part 1 was about using blogs to stay in touch with friends and colleagues who don't necessarily merit a phone call all the time. Part 2 is about finding individual writers you like as a replacement for bigger, more impersonal news sources.
Blogs Just Are - Why Are We Still Debating This?
I try not to focus on blogs-about-blogs too often because it's just a bunch of posturing on both sides. Why worry about whether or not blogs are past their prime, overhyped, undervalued, or the key to capturing the hearts and minds of a generation? Like I wrote in part one, blogs are a specific form of web site, and they can be very useful in a number of ways. I wish we weren't so obsessed with declaring them dead on the one hand or the savior of all mankind on the other. It all starts to feel a little robotic, and the hyperbole gets in the way of regular people using them for regular things. Let's put the thrones and pillories away.
A Great CD Is Not A Failed Radio Station
As content makers, we're all told that we need to commit to a "format" to be important, whether that's daily, weekly, or monthly. But podcasting, like writing and sharing bookmarks and sharing photos and making music, can be just something you do when it fits. Some ideas lend themselves better to pictures, some to words, some to audio. The web is adaptable, the tools are adaptable, and your audience should be adaptable.
Why Read Blogs: Staying In Touch
Fundamentally, a blog is just a web site, no more, no less. Reading an entry on a blog does not suddenly make you a different person or smarter or more opinionated or funnier or hipper. It's just another search result in Google, just another choice for something to read. You don't quit reading other stuff. Reading something I write on Earthling doesn't suddenly make you "a blog reader." It just means you read something on Earthling.
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries tagged 'Blogs'. [What is this?]
