Alltop.com: RSS for the masses
For those of you arriving from design.alltop.com, welcome to Designers who Blog.
DWB features blogging designers, illustrators, writers, marketeers, photographers, podcasters, typographers, artists and advertising pros. And to make it easy, they’re all in the sidebar, eyes right.
You can also search through the archives or the extensive blogroll (in progress).
As DWB is also about the blogger, at times you’ll find a banner placed at the head of a feature. Like so.
And there’s more …
Grouped by year, the majority can be found under the top nav appropriately titled banners, inside Contributing Banners Yr-1 and Yr-2.
DWB also has a rotating.php plugged into the design. Just scroll up to the top and hit the refresh key. If something changes, it’s most likely a banner. If not, then I’m in the middle of yet another design tweak.
Since I’m on a banner roll … : m a o m a o publications : has included banners from DWB in a book due out this summer, “Blogs: Mad About Design”. At this point I don’t know how many of the banners will be in the book (after getting permission I shipped over quite a few), but it’ll be like Xmas for someone for sure.
And on occasion, I break out of the blogger mold and into a ramble or more. For a taster there’s Care package Thai style, Degrees of PITA and the slightly tongue-in-cheek, Quality Control: Are Your Clients Left Hanging?
For more (along with a few repeats), check out the about page (also in the top nav).
And for those who aren’t sure what Alltop.com is …
At Chris Brogan’s site he mentions Alltop.com. What kept my attention was the target market:
Alltop isn’t for you or me. It’s for friends and family and coworkers who aren’t yet surfing at the speed of light with Google Reader, or adding meta commentary via FriendFeed. It’s for our neighbor who still logs into AOL, or people who want to read a sampling of information without a lot of customization.
Although Alltop.com isn’t solely concerned with the older generation, I am. Do you also have the same concerns? For those not exactly tech-savvy, yet struggling to keep current?
My mother is in her 70′s and my mother-in-law turns 90 this January. And because I live overseas, to keep phone bills down I set them up (pre-Skype) with Macs. Both of the great-grannies are interested in easy information, but they get confused easily due to their ages and the speed of technology.
To make sure Alltop.com is what they needed – lazy browsing – I checked out the layout. It’s pretty straightforward really. The chosen blogs share the last 5 posts. And mousing over excites a paragraph to pop up. Easy. Grannies should be able to sort this out and cousin Amy will be thrilled.
They might need directions getting back to the index page though. There are suggestions linking further in, but non-savvy users won’t know to click on the logo (far left). My eye was drawn to the right so I had to make my way back to where the logo was. Those clicking with my granny’s eyes might get a bit confused.
So yes, while I might get antsy with Alltop.com as my main feed reader, the simple concept should please the great-granny up to the great-great-granny age group (women in my family live loooooooooooong lives). Or even the casual browser, like your cousin Amy who just wants to get around without doing a ton of research to get there.
At this point all design blogs are lumped together in one pot. It’s early days yet, hopefully later on the Communication industry will be separated from those looking to spruce up the spare bedroom or choose the right colour for that just purchased mansion.
From googling around, the consensus is pretty much that these are quality blogs, so I’m chuffed to be included.
If you are not already on Alltop.com, there’s a wiki floating around. Does it have your name on it? No? Well then, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Technorati Tags: alltop.com, artists and advertising pros, Blogging, design, Illustrators, Marketeers, Photographers, Podcasters, rss, Typographers, Writers
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Congratulations on being included there. That’s pretty neat!
Thanks Naomi!
Looking at the list, I was chuffed to find that DWB got in.
But from what I understand, Alltop.com isn’t looking to add a lot of the same. They want a bit of this and that to please their audience.
My congrats to you and DWB, Cat!
Thanks sweetie! (and nice to see you here – I miss all you at the about)
I lurk about (no pun intended) every so often m’self (we miss you too, btw). I need to de-lurk more often.
It’s be nice if you permanently de-lurked. You don’t know all the crazy fun you’ve been missing (for real).
Please tell everyone I said, “hey”. Ok?
I actually peeked in today. But, I didn’t have anything I thought anyone needed to know so I just closed out and came home.
Well, I wouldn’t say “permanently”…hehe, yes I’m naughty (but busy too). I actually feel a bit bad for missing out on the fun here and elsewhere (I’ve even neglected the tending of my own blog, so I need to play catch-up).
I’ll definitely try to hang out more often…mustn’t miss out, y’know.
I’ll gladly pass along your “hey” but if I tell them you peeked and left without some nuggets of wisdom, you might be in some doo-doo, lol.
Dag