Technology ought to be simple, don’t you think? Blogging technology certainly is. Thanks to WordPress, adding a new post here is as simple as opening a vein and letting it flow into the keyboard, then hitting “Publish”. One aspect of blogging has always bugged me though, and that’s the reading part—more specifically, feed reading. Until now, that is. I just found an excellent new website that has rocked my blog reading world.

Last week, through a friend of a friend of my wife, I heard about Bloglines.com. What a magnificently simple and useful little utility! I signed up for a free account and added my favorite blogs to my own personal list. Now every morning, I hit my Bloglines page and it gives me a listing of every new post available, sort of like email for blogs. The posts are marked as read once I’m done with them (unless I tell bloglines not to), and they just vanish into thin air. Of course, I can dig back into my favorite blogs and view all posts for a given time frame, but the point is that I can tell at a glance if there’s anything new to read.

Bloglines also simplifies one of the more annoying traits of many blogs, finding the feed listing. If I wanted, for example, to add my own blog to my home page, I’d click “Add” at the top of the blog listings column, then type www.wordsforwriters.com in the blog address. Bloglines checks the blog for feed links and displays its findings. I check one,  and voila! I’m subscribed. I can arrange the blogs in subfolders, too, which is helpful if you have more than a fistful of links to check each morning.

Check out Bloglines. I think you’ll dig it.