Google Reader

Do you use Google Reader? I'm addicted.

If you read a lot of blogs (like me), you need a blog feed reader. I'm sure there are many other services, but I recently started using Google Reader and I love it. It's made blog reading so much easier!! I am not a techy computer person, and I usually figure things out by trial and error. So, forgive me if my advice is hard to understand here!

Here's the why and the how of Google Reader:

I used to read blogs by adding them to my "blogs I read list" on my own blog. You know, the ones that show up here in my sidebar:

I had my settings so that it would sort by "most recently updated" at the top. So, every day I went to my own blog and clicked through the ones at the top of the list. I realized though, that this is not accurate and I was reading some posts 4 or 5 days behind OR I was wasting a lot of time clicking on each blog down my list just to see if it had been updated.

Some people either remember the web address and type it in everytime, or you can bookmark it on your browser...

Another option in Blogger is to "follow" using the Google Friend Connect thing....

It looks like this in the left or right hand column of a lot of blogs. I think it's a cool, visual way of saying "hey! I read this blog!!", and having the pictures of many of your readers in your sidebar is cool, too.

But, reading posts in your Blogger Dashboard doesn't always work well with blogs created in any other platform (Wordpress, etc.).

Then there's RSS feeds which I totally don't understand, so we won't get into that.

ANYWAY...

So, the solution is Google Reader. Or at least it is for me!!

If you have a Google email account, this is already part of your service. Just click on "Reader" while logged into Gmail. (It's in the top left corner, 4th item from the left). If you don't have Gmail, it's free and easy to create an account.

(currently viewing all posts by my blog, bold means it is unread)



Ok, here's how to add all of your blogs in to the Reader:

Click in top left corner, "Add a Subscription"

In the drop down, PASTE the url of the blog you want to read and keep up with regularly. Click Add.

Now it displays all posts by that blog. I like to organize mine into folders. So, go up to "feed settings" and select the folder you want to add the blog to, or create a new folder.

Also, you can click "mark all as read" if you've already read all those posts and want your reader to start off with a clean slate.

See, those are all my folders. I read TONS of blogs (117 as of today), and this helps me stay organized. My friends' posts are the most important to me, and the ones about advertising or home/hostess ideas aren't as much. So, I can log in and just view the ones I want and come back later to check the others, when I have more time.
Also, once you've read something, it doesn't disappear, old posts are easily found.

If you want to read a post, just click the name and it drops down.

You can read the whole post in the reader, without having to leave. Pictures and all!

Now, I admit, sometimes I really like to see the way a blog looks (design, header, background)– so I often click over to the blog from my reader page. If you want to leave a comment, you need to click the title of the blog on your reader and you’ll magically be taken to the actual blog with their pretty designs and stuff. I try to leave comments a lot. Spread the love, people!

If it's a post I really like and want to come back to it, I just "star" it and it goes in my "favorites" folder. I do that a lot with recipes on food blogs.

To me, this almost works like an email inbox, telling you how many unread items you have. Makes life so easy! Even more amazing, they have an iPhone app that pretty much works the same way. I feel like I'm always caught up on blogs now!

Set it up for yourself and let me know if you have questions!
Hopefully this little tip will help!

PS- Can you tell that' I'm bored on this snow day?