Marion's Weblog

It goes with out saying that a lot of people don't read blogs. If they do they probably read only one or two. When I email a link to a blog to friends or to my group I often get asked how I find the time to read blogs. I found a very good introduction about How to get into blogs at a blog called tecosystems. The whole idea is rather daunting to a lot of people. Even when you have figured out the basics there are still a lot of thing that are confusing. Here are some of the questions I am still noodling over.

What is Technorati? What do people use it for? I've created an acount and even have a link to it on my blog but I still haven't really figured it out. Oh and what are the little dialog baloons that I see on blogs like Tim Bray's?

Another question I have is - How do I publish blog entries from outside the Sun Network? I think I've found what I need in some of the Sun blogging documentation. I think I need to set up some blogging software that uses the blogger API, but I still need to figure out exactly how to do it.

A third question is - What is the best way is to keep track of specific blog entries that I might want to look at in the future? I'm thinking of putting links to some of them in my blog. For instance I might start a category called iWork tips and then just blog every time I find a link that is a good tip about how to do mobile work. I could do the same thing with SunRay at home comments. But there have to be other ways besides just bookmarking them all.

The last question for now is what is the best way to reply to comments? If I do it in line I'm never sure the person ever saw my reply. If I email a response everyone doesn't see it. Maybe the best thing to do is to do both. And when I comment how do I remember to go back and check for a reply? I commented on a Richard Edelman blog the other day and his reply is both in the blog and I got it in email. I wonder if that was automatic? By the way, how cool is that that I actually got an email from Richard Edelman!! (2004-12-10 17:59:45.0) Permalink Comments [5]

Comments:

hey there - glad you found the blogs howto instructive. now while i'm far from an expert on blogging, let me take a swing at some of your questions: >> What is Technorati? What do people use it for? Technorati does a lot of stuff, and I certainly can't tell you everything that it does, but essentially it's a search engine targeted specifically at blogs. I use it to search other people's blogs, and search on other blogs linking to my blog. >> Another question I have is - How do I publish blog entries from outside the Sun Network? I think I've found what I need in some of the Sun blogging documentation. I think I need to set up some blogging software that uses the blogger API, but I still need to figure out exactly how to do it. I think you're asking about how to use client side software to blog. Now I don't use roller, so I don't know exactly how it handles such things, but typically you want to get a search tool like ecto or w.bloggar for Mac/Windows, BloGTK for Linux, and feed it your entries XMLRPC file, which is the API for client side access. >> A third question is - What is the best way is to keep track of specific blog entries that I might want to look at in the future? There are many ways to handle this, but the way I'd recommend is by exploiting a public social bookmarking service like del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us). >> The last question for now is what is the best way to reply to comments? If I do it in line I'm never sure the person ever saw my reply. If I email a response everyone doesn't see it. Maybe the best thing to do is to do both. And when I comment how do I remember to go back and check for a reply? This is an issue for most blog software, but a couple of points: 1. most blog systems email the blog author when a comment is received. 2. some blog systems provide a "Subscribe to this Entry" which emails you when an entry you commented to is updated - we use MT-Notifier for this anyway, hope that answers a few questions.

Posted by Stephen O'Grady on December 10, 2004 at 06:53 PM PST #

Go to bloglines.com and get yourself an account and sign up for a few subscriptions to blogs, including your own. After you understand how that works, then Technorati will become more obvious.

Posted by Tim Bray on December 10, 2004 at 09:19 PM PST #

I had the same/similar questions about blogging. After your blog and comments below, I've learnt something. Thanks.

Posted by Sundararajan on December 13, 2004 at 07:15 AM PST #

glad you came across Stepho too - evidently both RedMonk blogs have interested you at one point or other. which is goodness!!!

Posted by James Governor on December 20, 2004 at 08:08 AM PST #

technorati is just great when you want to find something you saw on a blog the other day. until google offers a blog only search its a more powerful domain specific tool.

Posted by James Governor on December 20, 2004 at 08:10 AM PST #