Obviously I am a big believer in getting my news through blogs. Daily I read dozens of blogs on Power Tools, Home Improvements, Cars, Computer Stuff, etc. The easiest way to keep up with everything you are interested in is to subscribe to RSS feeds and have the information sent directly to you through www.iGoogle.com (or your reader of choice). However these pages get really crowded really fast so a few months ago I consolidated all the RSS feeds into a few single RSS feeds based on the general topics by using Yahoo Pipes. Through the Yahoo Pipes service you can take all the blogs and news sites related to one topic and consolidate them all into a single RSS feed, filtered how you see fit. So when you want to see what’s going on in car world you can just check out the feeds for Car Blogs. I did these for my own use however over the past few months these Pipes have been cloned 100+ times and run 100,000+ times. Apparently other people liked these consolidated feeds as well.

The Power Tool Blog Pipe features all the most popular blogs including: ToolSnob.com, ToolMonger.com, CopTool.com, Toologics.com, Tool Geek, Toolcrib.com & Ridgid Forum. It is filtered for just the good stuff, I love toolmonger.com but I don't need the updates for what's on TV tonight. It might not make a lot of sense for us (as Ohio Power Tool) to promote the Tool King & Tool Barn blogs as they are the competition but in terms of good info we know we can’t provide it all and don’t have any delusions we are the only tool blog around.

My personal though is the more information people have the more they are likely to buy quality tools from knowledgeable companies and not cheap junk tools. More & more people are doing a little research online before buying anything and realize they can get better tools, cheaper online (or in the stores of companies which are competing online). I think, as a whole, companies that are providing customs with more information are collectively getting more and more business so we should try to provide as much info as possible.

Other collective RSS feeds you might be interested in:       
Home Improvement Blogs – Bob Villa, DIY network, many more
Green Building & Living – Treehugger, greenbean, dwell, autobloggreen, many more
Car Guy Blogs – Autoblog, Edmunds, Motor Trend, many more