Home Page Syndication

I've decided to try out Pageflakes as my Syndication Aggregator for this class. I'm used to using Bloglines, but I wanted to try something with a different layout. The default view for Pageflakes is a web page with different boxes called "flakes" on the page for each RSS feed. You can drag the boxes around to change the layout as well as edit each box to view each feed differently. You can also add new pages of "flakes". The main page I will use for feeds that I want to check most often, and then add additional pages for different topics. You also have the option to view Pageflakes in a Reader style which is similar to Bloglines.

One thing I don't like about Pageflakes is that there is a sponsored ad box that you can't move around or get rid of. That's something that Bloglines doesn't have. You can change the theme and layout in Pageflakes which is something you can't do in Bloglines.

When you first sign up with Pageflakes it asks you about your interests and gives you a main page with flakes of feeds based on your interests. You can go in and delete these flakes if you want. I added Yahoo! News: Top Stories and The Anchorage Daily News feeds to begin with. One thing I noticed is that there isn't a link to the main page of any blog or site in the flake, just to each individual post or story. There also isn't much of a contrast in color between posts in feeds you've read and haven't read. I'm going to have to play around with the settings to see if I can change this.

Using a Syndication Aggregator saves me time by keeping updates to sites I visit on a regular basis on one site rather than just going to each individual site. It's a good way to quickly get updated news information. Also it's a good way to keep track of blogs that you like that don't update very often.