Information Overload

For two years, I've used Bloglines as my news aggregator; everyday the news from around the web filters into my personal page on the web. I'm able to check all of my favorites sites in one place, and stories are marked after I scroll over them. However, many times it throws too much in my direction. If I don't keep up for a day I end up with thousands or articles waiting at my electronic doorstep. Currently I have 2049 articles waiting.

I'm a news junkie, but even that is more than I can handle, and I've begun a search for alternatives.

Brijit publishes 50 - 100 word abstacts of articles from around the web, and the articles are given a rank. The numerical guidance to what's interesting is a nice plus considering the length of many of the New Yorker's articles. A bonus, for those ahead of the curve, if an abstract you submitted is published you can get paid anywhere from $5-8 dollards. Some of the magazines they focus on are The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Vanity Fair, and Harper's. Currently Brijit is not publishing abstracts since they have run out of funding, but the archive is still available and they are seeking new funding. For more info and possible updates check out their blog.

Addict-o-matic searchs RSS Feed from popular sites based on a user's query or predefined topics. The results are displayed in miniboxes grouped by site similar to the look of iGoogle. Users can move the boxes around or remove them to create their own custom page. The search needs some work to weed out the duds. After poking around a bit with there custom pages I found some new sites.

Unfortunately, I still don't have time to read every article I'd like or my own magazines, but at least I'm getting closer to sorting through the avalanche of information.