Bloglines
“Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content.” That quote from Bloglines accurately describes what Bloglines is, but doesn’t really communicate its benefit. Here’s what Bloglines does for me: I like to keep current with the content of about two dozen blogs, mostly blogs in Kansas that might not publish new articles very often. (You can see a list of some of them here.) Instead of visiting each of these sites every day or so, I simply add them to my list of “feeds” in Bloglines. Then, Bloglines periodically checks the blogs for me and shows me which blogs have new or revised items. I can view the blogs through the Bloglines website, or by visiting the blog itself.
Bloglines works very well, but for it to work at all for a blog, the blog you’re interested in must publish a feed, and not all do. Try it at http://bloglines.com.
Microsoft AntiSpyware
Previously I have been recommending Sypbot: Search and Destroy for antispyware. Recently I started to use Microsoft Antispyware and now recommend it. I believe its ease of use, automatic updating, and continuous background monitoring is better for most people. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx.
Google Analytics
If you have a website, you may be interested in knowing how many people visit your site. There are many web counters and other services to give counts of visitors and other statistics, but nothing I have seen comes close to Google Analytics. This free service, available at http://www.google.com/analytics, provides detailed analysis of the traffic that visits your website. I recommend it for anyone with a website who wants to know more about the site’s visitors.
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