I enjoy reading new blogs, especially when I find one to add to my daily reads. When I’m out to find a new one, I use the following sites:
MT’s recently updated list
Weblogs recently updated list
Technorati’s top 100 blogs
Globe of blogs
Blogrolling’s top 100
I don’t have a specific set of rules, but there are certain features I look for in a blog. The main ones are as follows.
Readable
If the navigation is poor, the layout is confusing, or midi files, popup windows and flash movies are on the main page, I leave immediately. I will also leave if the colors are hard to read, unless I really like the content. For instance, I began reading paperback writer in spite of the bright purple background. Every time I read her blog my eyes took 10-15 seconds to get back to normal, but I enjoyed her writing enough to ask if she’d mind toning the color down. Much to my surprise, she changed the color the next day.
Permanent links and comments
I want to be able to reference individual entries, allowing the reader to easily read previous articles or discussions. If there aren’t any permanent links, it forces the reader to search the site to find the relative article. I like to add my two cents to a discussion, and comments are a great way to make your points known and to hear the viewpoints of others. Movable Type users have both of these taken care of, and have trackback to boot, so if they blog is using Movable Type, it gets bonus points.
Frequent updates
I read blogs once a day. If the blog is only updated once every few weeks, I’ll soon become bored of reading the same entry day after day.
Good content
This almost goes without saying, but I have to enjoy what they’re writing about or at least the style in which they write it.
Common interests
If I share interests with them, it shows they have good taste (kidding, kidding). I have an eclectic mix of interests, so finding someone with similar interests is rare. If I do find one it makes for an entertaining read.
I like to use organica, which I found on your links page. I use the search function to look up sites I like (blog or otherwise) and then I can see who they link to and who links to them.
For example, I’m a big fan of the public radio show, This American Life. I looked up this site and found other bloggers and websites that have linked to them. I’ve done the same thing with the local newspaper.
Also, you can hope in your own site and see who’s linking to you and what else they link to. All in all, very cool stuff.
That’s true, another way I find new bloggers is seeing who other bloggers link to. I haven’t used organica much, I’ll have to try it out again.
I’ve been to alot of these indexes and have read quite a few, but would rather find blogs that have a subject in common. Is there a blog index that is searchable by subject content? For example: gardening blogs, fishing blogs. I like visiting sites that are funny but I sometimes feel like I’m wasting my time if I’m just reading a blog out of entertainment rather than trying to learn something that I didn’t know.
There are blog directories searchable by topic (eatonweb, bloghop) and you can find entire directories that only list blogs of a certain topic (photography, research) or region (San Diego, Birmingham).
However, it’s difficult to classify some blogs by topic. I would be hard-pressed to classify my own. As a result, you’ll see blogs that are included in over 50 different topics which dilutes the value of the topical search.
I’ve participated in a few discussions about the ontology of web logs at DMOZ and there are two main schools of thought. One says alphabetical is the only way to go because the topics can vary and change so often that you’d never be able to keep up. The other says topical is the only useful way to classify them, even if it’s hard.
I agree with the former. I discuss many different topics and would not fit within a small set of them unless you used vague, general ones. The best solution I can think of is to have bloggers categorize themselves like Eatonweb does. In fact, there is even a gardening category. The closest they have to fishing is sports, but it has a blog that appears to be dedicated entirely to fishing in the west.
I never have time to go search for other blogs to read. When I get home from a long day at work, going to my computer to browse the web is pretty low on my “I-want-to-do” list.