Site of the Week: Bloglines.com

I do lots of presentations on law office management and technology. I also do some programs on lawyer's use of the Internet. Whenever I mention RSS Newsfeeds, I always see some people's eyes glaze over or attention start to wander. I can appreciate that as I didn't immediately "get" RSS either. But this technology has an immense potential as a way for consumers to sort the type of online information that they wish to receive. Blogs produce RSS newsfeeds, allowing one to scan the posts from dozens (or hundreds) of blogs without actually visiting the sites. To receive RSS newsfeeds, you need a newsreader. There are several free or inexpensive newsreaders, but for the beginner I recommend Bloglines.com, this week's Website of the Week. Bloglines is free and easy to use. It is browser-based and does not require the installation of any new software on your computer.

RSS is rapidly becoming more mainstream and there are more than just blog feeds available. Many information providers now publish RSS newsfeeds, such as CBS News and Sports, CNN, NewsOK.com, Stateline.org, LexisNexis and many others. You can even receive the Dilbert cartoon in your newsreader daily via RSS.  RSS could become as widely used as e-mail and Web browsing. So now is a good time to try a few of them if you haven't done so yet and our Website of the Week, Bloglines.com, is as good a place to begin as you will find.