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What is a blog 'aggregator'? According to the Oxford English Dictionary - the verb 'to aggregate' means: "to combine into a whole". It originated from the latin word aggregare - meaning 'herd together'. The word 'aggregator' has it's origins here.

Blog readers have very particular reasons for wanting to 'herd things together'. Firstly, there are quite literally millions of blogs out there in cyberspace. Many of them are started up with enthusiasm (which may quickly wane when the blogger realises how much work they are to maintain!) and many die out within the first few weeks.

As a blog reader, you may wish to keep up to date with a number of favourite blogging sites. If you choose to bookmark each URL and then visit each one individually it's going to take up a lot of your time. Sometimes you don't know how frequently your favourite blogs are updated. So you may feel you need a blog 'aggregator' like 'Bloglines' which organises this information for you. It's a one-stop-shop if you like. It's 'Google News' for blogs. It's your own personal 'blog newspaper'. The huge advantage of an aggregator is that information is not automatically 'pushed' towards the reader (as it would be in an email marketing campaign). Instead we have the ability to 'pull' information towards us - and we have more control over which feeds (or blogs) we subscribe to.

'Technorati' is one of the best-known blog aggregators. This site has built a reputation for itself by insisting on 'quality guidelines'. Each blog registered must meet certain criteria before excerpts are featured on the site.

Blog aggregators are often built right in to some well-known sites or email programs. Sign in to your 'Blogger' account and one of the first things you see is a 'Reading List' - where you can see at a glance when and how often your favourite blogs have been updated with posts.

Bloggers themselves can also make use of blog aggregators to increase their traffic. Which ones should you choose? This depends very much on what sort of blog you have and where you are aiming to go with your writing. If you are blogging about high tech goods and services - setting your sights on a good Technorati rating is probably a safe bet. If you have a specialist or niche blog (for example a Scottish political blog) chances are there is a targeted blog aggregator for that specialism, so it makes sense to apply your search engine skills and approach them.

Learn more about this author, Frances Laing.
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