¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

Without social media algorithms, how can you discover new blogs to follow?

Enter blog directories:

There are two ways to find information on the Web: by searching or browsing. Web directories provide links in a structured list to make browsing easier. Many web directories combine searching and browsing by providing a search engine to search the directory. Unlike search engines, which base results on a database of entries gathered automatically by web crawler, most web directories are built manually by human editors. Many web directories allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness.

A few directories I like¹:

• ✪ https://250kb.club/ / https://256kb.club/
• ✪ https://512kb.club/ (Kev)
• ✪ https://blogosphere.app/
• ✪ https://blogroll.org/ (Manu)
• ✪ https://bubbles.town/
• ✪ https://clew.se/
• ✪ https://darktheme.club/
• ✪ https://diff.blog/
• ✪ https://feedle.world/
• ✪ https://indieblog.page/
• ✪ https://kagi.com/smallweb
• ✪ https://marginalia-search.com/
• ✪ https://powrss.com/
• ✪ https://rss.social/
• ✪ https://scour.ing/
• ✪ https://static.quest
• ✪ https://xn--sr8hvo.ws/dashboard (an indieweb webring)
• https://ooh.directory/
• https://www.blogsareback.com/
• ✗ https://baccyflap.com/noai/?slug=njs#links

I tend to visit them occasionally, whenever I crave for new content, perhaps like doomscrolling in social media.

Most new blogs I subscribe to come from indirect referrals. I read a blog post I like that links to another blog post, I visit it to find out more and realize that it’s interesting, then I subscribe to it.

More rarely there’s also the direct referral way, for example, when I become aware that a friend or a coworker has started a blog recently.

The combination of referrals + directories is quite sustainable.

See also: How I discover new blogs by Nelson Figueroa.

Previously.