Cutting Blog Overload

When I finally got my one-year old down for his morning nap, and settled in front of the computer to get my blog reading done, this is what Google Reader had waiting for me:



This adds up to 2,399 blog posts that I supposedly am interested in, and supposedly want to read. And, in truth, I do. But, as aforementioned one-year old will be up within an hour or two, and with other household duties to perform, I simply can't take the time to read it all.

How to cope?

Enter AideRSS and their spiffy Google Reader add-on for Firefox or Greasemonkey.

The extension makes use of PostRank to identify blog posts with the most value, judged by user interaction, linking, etc. You can then filter your posts by PostRank value, and skim posts to keep up on the latest, without having to plow through every post in your lineup in order to find what really matters.

The install for Firefox is incredibly easy... one click and you're done. The usability is great, although it will take me a while to judge just how efficiently or accurately PostRank is determining what "really matters" in my various blogospheres.

This video tells all about the app and how to install:

Going the Distance with LiveMaps

Live Maps has an interesting post up about calculating distances and area using their maps.

Certainly another way in which Live Maps is outshining Google Maps in the functionality and usability departments.

Set Gmail as your Default Email

The Gmail Blog also has up a tip on making Gmail your default email in Firefox, meaning that clicking on a mailto: link on a web page will open your new email in Gmail.

This is great for someone like me, who has been killing accidental launches of my unused Outlook client for ages!

Gmail Hot Tips

The Official Gmail Blog recently posted a list of their most read gmailing tips. Among the highlights:

• Tips for importing old email to Gmail... great if you want to create a centralized genealogy email address and have to move messages from other accounts.
  
• Little known Gmail features, like the fact that you can bookmark individual messages, because every email has its own distinct URL. Who knew?
  
• And the all-important 9 reasons to archive, designed to wheedle, cajole and impress you into laying off that delete button and start archiving.
  

FHL Gets Earthy

The Family Search Labs Blog yesterday blogged about the new release of an FHL catalog plug for Google Earth.

Going to the KML lookup page (.kml is the extension for Google Earth files), you can now access the files for various states.

I love the visualization power this brings to the FHL Catalog. If you use Google Earth in other ways (such as locating homesteads or examining terrain) the option to quickly ascertain what resources FHL has available for your research area is extremely handy!

Remember the Milk... On Your Desktop!

I covered the benefits of Remember the Milk awhile ago, and how it can help organize and "efficientize" your genealogy research.

Thirderror has a great tutorial on how to embed your RTM to-do list on your desktop, so that those lonely little tasks don't get forgotten in the morass of your online existence. I love the ability to pull the online functionality onto your desktop and be able to use it outside of the browser environment!

(Win 98 and XP only.)

[Via lifehacker]

Feeding Flickr

If you have never perused the photo-sharing site Flickr for genealogy-related photos, you are missing out! On Flickr you can find everything from photos documenting particular family histories, to photos of historic architecture, clothing, jewelery, monuments, gravesites, and more. You can even search by location, thanks to recent "geotagging" efforts. You'll be amazed at what you can find.

As if that weren't enough, did you know that you can subscribe to RSS feeds of Flickr photo groups and individual users? This allows you to receive a continually updated stream of the photos through your favorite feed reader (Google Reader, My Yahoo Page, browser, Bloglines, etc.). As they do for following blogs, Flickr feeds make it amazingly easy to keep tabs on new photos that are being uploaded to groups that interest you. You can also follow the photostreams of individuals, which can be very helpful for collaborative efforts.

Getting Your Feed On

Subscribing to Flickr feeds is incredibly easy. Here's how to do it:

In this instance, I am interested in the Long Island, NY History photo group. While browsing the page of photos for this group, you can see that the standard feed icon appears in the address bar of my Firefox browser:



If you are using Internet Explorer, you'll find the feed icon appearing in the toolbar below the address bar:



You can also find the feed icon at the bottom of any Flickr photo page:



When you click on the icon, you will be given the option to subscribe to the RSS or Atom Feed for that particular page:



Important: Make sure that you are on the "Pool" page for a particular group, or you may end up subscribing to the group's comments instead of the photostream! To be sure, the click option should read as it does in the image above (note that it says "pool feed"). For individuals, this will read "photostream".

You'll have to follow instructions for your particular reader in order to get your feed setup completely. I use Google Reader, so the setup is pretty easy. Here's the final product, the feed as it appears in my reader:



Voila! I can now follow my favorite Flickr groups without having to leave the comfort of my reader!