Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

[evilC]

...such online/desktop stuff-management ...errr... thingies!

Personally, I've just started my own Pageflakes page today (Wiki explanation here) for a couple of reasons:

a) I want to keep more efficiently abreast of updates on some of the blogs I like, and...

b) My boss has asked me to help manage the Pageflakes/blogs section on the college website, so having my own page is helping me get to grips with it (...in case you were about to tell me that Pageflakes is the shittest and most obsolete option out there!)

(Awful name, 'Pageflakes' - makes me think of dandruff!)

However, I have a question of any other Pageflakes users out there. (Unlikely, I know, but...)

Is there a way of getting the blog 'flakes'/modules that have been most recently updated to rise to the top of the list of blogs I've got RSS-feeds coming in from? There doesn't seem to be an option for that in the main menu, but I wondered if there was some code or another program of some sort that might make that happen?

Obviously, being able to see several feeds simultaneously saves a whole lot of time over visiting many blogs in turn, but it would be really helpful and time-saving if you knew which ones had new entries, of course. It's a bit like the way that the most recently-replied-to thread on here will move to the top of the list of threads. That's what I'm after on Pageflakes, but is it possible?

Yours Ludditudinally,
evilC

[Stumpy Pepys]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

If you have a Gmail (or Google) account, have a play with iGoogle, which is what I use for my feeds and podcasts.

I'm not sure if what you're after is on the default RSS widget, but there are loads of RSS widgets on the list and I expect one of them will have a sort by date and time function.

[ad hoc]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

I can't keep track of all the things I'm supposed to know about in Web 2.0 (Are we still in web 2.0 or have we moved on to web 2.1 or web 2.0.1 yet?)

Last week I was doing something with "Ning", and then on Friday, I was asked whether I "plurked". (I don't, and until that moment, had no idea that there was such a thing). I think it's a conspiracy by the young to try and drive us older people away through making our brains explode trying to keep up.

[amp]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

Netvibes does what you want automatically and shows which links from the feeds you've clicked on and which you haven't.

Pageflakes looks like an iGoogle/Netvibes clone but I think iGoogle/Netvibes are more mature and have more features but can't be 100% as I haven't used (or heard) of Pageflakes before.

You might also want to look at Bloglines which is a more dedicated web based RSS reader.

[Ginger Yellow]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

I had a go with a few RSS readers a while back, but despite being a heavy blog consumer, I never really saw the benefit (on my desktop, anyway). It really doesn't take that long to click on a favourite, see it hasn't changed, then move on to the next. I can get through the whole lot in less than a minute. And besides, half the point is to waste time. Speeding it up any further would be counterproductive. On my mobile phone, however, it's another story. Even with 3G, web page loading is pretty slow.

[Sam]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

ad hoc wrote:

Last week I was doing something with "Ning", and then on Friday, I was asked whether I "plurked". (I don't, and until that moment, had no idea that there was such a thing). I think it's a conspiracy by the young to try and drive us older people away through making our brains explode trying to keep up.

I don't turn quarter-of-a-century old for another 2 1/2 weeks, and until I read this thread I had never heard of Pageflakes, Ning or plurking. I run a blog myself and have never used an RSS reader, only found out what Twitter was two days ago (apparently everyone's doing it), and if you gave me a wi-fi enabled laptop right now I wouldn't know how to get it to go online (though granted I'd probably work that one out quickly enough).

So don't feel too old.

[Furtho]

Pageflakes, Netvibes and other...

Obviously, being able to see several feeds simultaneously saves a whole lot of time over visiting many blogs in turn, but it would be really helpful and time-saving if you knew which ones had new entries, of course. It's a bit like the way that the most recently-replied-to thread on here will move to the top of the list of threads. That's what I'm after on Pageflakes, but is it possible?

evilC - I've been playing around with Pageflakes and it looks like there are two ways in which it interfaces with blogs that you load on to it. Assuming that you elect to put blogs on the main page, individual posts that you have read will show up in a paler font than those that are unread (you can choose things like how many posts it displays, or whether you see just headlines, or summaries, or thumbnail images, etc.). In other words, it's not a case of unread stuff "rising to the top" but there is an indication as to what new material is around.

Alternatively, if you click on Reader at the top of the page, you can see the same type of information presented in a manner that is similar to Net Newswire. That is to say, all the blogs are listed alphabetically on the left-hand side of the screen, those with unread posts being in bold. A number next to the blog title indicates exactly how many unread posts there are, and you can also see Outlook-esque preview panes on the right-hand side.