February 12, 2009

I'm starting to get into reading more blogs.  I'm finding blogs of people and subjects that I want to learn more about but I'm having a hard time with where to keep track of all of these things!  I am currently teetering between Blogger (here!) or Bloglines.  Each of them have something I like but neither have exactly what I'm looking for.  Does anyone who's reading this have a particular reader/aggregator that they use and if so, what is it that you like about it?

Here are my ideals or what I like about the ones I use:

1.  Blogger-I like that it's what I use as my own blogging resource.  From the dashboard I can see blogs that I subscribe to and can read them from the "all posts" or something like that but can't really tell from that page which ones have new posts, etc.  I typically scroll through the updated posts which posts ALL of the updated posts and they're all mixed in together.  Of course, I can click on each blog listed on the left to go to that particular blog for updates, but I want something a little more user-friendly, customizable.  

2.  Bloglines-This one seems a little harder to navigate or customize to me.  Not easy to follow.  What I do like is on the left side I can customize the view of the blogs I subscribe to.  I can either have them all listed so I can see which ones have posts I haven't read or I can choose to only show the posts that I haven't read or have been updated since my last read.  What I don't like is the main section of the homepage.  It's plain and each time I go to Bloglines I get the same thing in that section...it's an overview of what they do, what you may want to look for, etc.  What I would like to see is something more personal, more my taste or what I want to see on that main page.  When you click on a particular blog to read it then kicks that blog over to the main section but again, it's plain and a little hard to understand.  If you know me at all, I like customization and personality to my web experience.  I'm all about cute and pretty and the ability to move things around, etc.  So to just have black words on a white page leaves me wanting more from my blog reader.

My ideal: maybe a combination of the two plus some other stuff :)  Here are some ideas of what I like or would like to see:

1.  When you select a blog to read in Blogger it takes you to the nice, pretty homepage of that particular blog...sort of like clicking a link and going straight to the page.  Say I have 3 posts of that particular blog that I haven't read.  I can click on the one I want to read and it will take me to that post, not to the main homepage so I have to then navigate to the post I wanted to read.  I LIKE THAT feature.

2.  Bloglines lists the Blogs I read and then in parentheses it shows how many are new and how many I haven't read.  BUT if I click on that particular blog, it takes me to the black and white listing (no pretty pictures or actual website) and then it marks them all as read.  Maybe there are 5 listed and I only read 3, I still want the other 2 listed as unread but so far I haven't figured out how to do that.  And it appears that once I click on a particular blog to read and it's opened in the main section of Bloglines, if I were to click the link from the left side to read the ones I haven't read, it shows an empty pane.  Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't like that at all.

3.  I would also like a section in a reader where I can add notes or save links to other things I may find interesting but want to look at at another time.  For instance, if I'm reading Mike's blog and he puts a link in there to something I may want to read later, I can put that in another folder or something to look at later without having to find that particular blog of his.  

4.  It would also be nice for me to have my calendar and emails listed somewhere in this, too.  What I really am striving to find is a one-stop place for all I want to look at in the a.m.-open up a page to see my favorite blogs and if they've got updated material; my calendar for the day; emails; facebook status updates and messages to me; twitters from people I choose to follow more closely and headlines from my news sources that I follow; and my Youversion daily reading link or widget to go to from this one page.

 AND MOST IMPORTANTLY I want all of this to also be available in an app for my Blackberry!!  I have something now that has potential for this and I may figure out that it does have all of this already, but it's still a little choppy and non-fluid for my personal preference.  

I'm not sure if anyone can see my vision and desire for this, but maybe someone can and either knows of an app already like this for my computer or phone OR can create one for me (Mike).  I'd appreciate any and all ideas, suggestions and I am more than happy to share anything else that may help you help me :)

Thanks for reading this!  I'm wanting to streamline my most used things on my computer AND make it personal to me...and cute, pretty & customizable to me :)