BlawgWorld 2006, our popular eBook (25,000+ downloads), features 51 of the best blawg Posts from 2005.
Like all books, it captures a moment in time. In fact, BushWorld, the best-selling collection of New York Times columns, inspired us to create BlawgWorld (we didn't actually read BushWorld, we just noticed its success). Clearly, people like the convenience of such collections.
But what happens if you want to monitor a blawg or group of blawgs daily in addition to reading the best selections annually? Several options exist.
If you just want to monitor a handful of blawgs, you can use browser bookmarks and check them every day. If you use Firefox, you can open each bookmark in its own tab simultaneously. Even better, you can use Firefox's Live Bookmarks feature to alert you when these blawgs have new content.
To track a larger group of blawgs, your best bet is to use an RSS newsreader. Personally, I recommend NewsGator's solutions, all of which I consider best of breed — FeedDemon (a standalone Windows application), NetNewsWire (a standalone Mac application), NewsGator Inbox (an Outlook plugin), and NewsGator Online.
If you have a Google or Yahoo account, you may want to use their free newsreaders — Google Reader and MyYahoo. I do not recommend Bloglines, which has a confusing interface.
If instead of tracking a group of blawgs, you instead want to track what all blawgs say about a topic you care about (e.g., e-discovery), you can use blog search engines such as Google Blog Search, Yahoo Blog Search, Feedster, and Technorati. Although you can save your searches, these search engines do not send e-mail alerts. Instead, you must use a newsreader to monitor your saved searches.
Finally, if you don't have a group of favorite blawgs or don't want to deal with newsreaders, but would like to stay in the loop (and don't mind spending some money), PinHawk recently began publishing Law on the Blogs NewzDigest, a daily e-mail newsletter with headlines and links to new content from about 50 blawgs (including TechnoLawyer Blog). This service comes at a price — $199/year. You can view a sample newsletter before subscribing, and try it for free for two weeks.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.