So, after the initial discovery that RSS was what I had been waiting for though I didn't even know it, I took some time to explore several feed-finding tools. The first was Topix.net. Using my geographic location as an initial clue, Topix.net suggested a screenful of potentially interesting news feeds and current event topics that I might be interested in. Unfortunately, being the blog-fan that I am, weblogs are not included in Topix searches. So, I moved on to Syndic8.com, a different feed-finding tool that almost immediately caused me some anxiety. While the page offered a huge amount of options for searching, it's (somewhat lack of) organization and the sheer number of links were a little overwhelming. After I recovered from my initial reaction, however, I saw that Syndic8.com could be a valuable resource. Statistics on RSS feeds, names of the newest users, random headlines, and the names of the most popular feeds can all be found within seconds. While I was experimenting with the search tools, I looked for a combination of the words "cupcake" and "Halloween", in honor of my love for both desserts and gothic holidays. Surprisingly, I came up with countless results, including blogs by stay-at-home moms, pastry chefs, and goth musicians, among other things. All in all, I would have to say that these feed-finding tools can be helpful, when used by an informed user; for an unitiated individual the options and array of search results could prove to be TOO overwhelming.
(Probably the most entertaining library-related feed I found was "Unshelved", an online comic about library life. Since subscribing to it, I can't seem to stop checking for updates and going back through past strips.)
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