PubSub is a great service: you tell it what you are looking for and it lets you know - in real time - when anything new is published that matches your query. It does this without a lot of the ‘noise’ you get with other services and lets you subscribe to your searches to make the whole thing easy.

PubSub is developing topical community lists so subscribers can narrow their search to the most relevant places on the Web. The newest syndicated list is The Literature List, and I’m delighted to announce that I am the editor.

I think this is a great partnership that will expand MetaxuCafé members’ readership and give them a higher degree of influence on the Web. While membership at MetaxuCafé does not guarantee inclusion on the list, members here will form the core of the community.

You’ll note a lot of technological goodies in the PubSub list: All sites are listed according to their link influence on a daily and 30 day basis. You can watch your site move up and down the list and get a host of statistics on every site including links in and out and link ranks.

Introducing The Literature List at PubSub:
{filedir_1}litblogs_small.gif

Bud,
Are MC members automatically members of PubSub? Is this the dumbest question you’ve ever heard?

No they are not automatically or necessarily members of PubSub and no I’ve heard much dumber questions. Someone once asked me if I prefer tacos or burgers, which is a really dumb question because everyone knows my favorite food is collard greens.

I still don’t get it, really. I’ve read all the FAQs and everything else I can find on the PubSub site and even tried to set up an account that would allow me to view the Literature List. But it still doesn’t work for me. In fact, it’s so obscure that I can’t even formulate the questions I would need to ask to begin to understand what is happening there.
OK, I’ll try one question: How do I get my site included in The Literature List? (I’ve tried adding my feed details but PubSub only tells me to come back later).

JonBakerOnline:

I’ll try to answer any confusion.  The Literature List that Bud is editing is located here.  It is free to look at and doesn’t require you to get an account.

If you run a search on the list, you will be taken to a screen that will provide you with a URL.  This URL is for a customized page for your specific search.  What sets us apart from any other search engine is that we provide information from the time you searched and not provide information that already existed (other engines do that very well).  The easiest way to keep track of your search is to bookmark the URL provided.  There are other ways, but this is the easiest.

Now to the account part.  You don’t need an account to create search (we call them subscriptions).  However, it is much easier to manage all of your subscriptions if you do have one.  So, my advice would be to set up an account and then run queries on the literature list.

I hope this clears up the confusion.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any further issues.

Steven Cohen
PubSub Concepts, Inc

Hey John - you’ll be on the list. Your site might not have been in the original file probably because we started this in the background before you became a member here. I’ll be making regular updates and you’ll be on the next one. (Also, John, I’ll reply to you in our off-line discussion today - I do keep getting my messages to you returned undeliverable, so sorry for the delay)

Steven
You say: So, my advice would be to set up an account and then run queries on the literature list.
But I don’t understand how to do this:

From the Literature List there is a subscription box which tells me:

You can restrict a PubSub Subscription to the sites on this list.

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But when I click on Subscribe it offers the possibility of restricting the search to everything except The Literature List. How do I subscribe to and search on The Literature list alone?

Bud, your brain must be able to hold a lot more data than mine. All those numbers and stats make my head hurt.

I posted news about this on the main site, but should have mentioned something here too: The story with PubSub is that they have gone belly up, or at least laid off much of their staff, including the librarian who managed the lists. I sent an email into Pubsub on August 31st and that email was not answered. I have reason to believe that it is not being maintained and may be inaccurate.