Google Reader: The free feed read that exceeds need with speed!
This post was suggested by Jerry. Â Thanks for the idea Jerry! Â Feel free to shoot your ideas to posts@justanasterisk.com.Â
Google Reader is a product for reading RSS feeds. What is an RSS feed? Only a brilliant tool for reducing today’s information overload into bite sized morsels! RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (learn more here). It’s simple, because it takes complicated site updates and gives you a pretty text version.
An example
Let’s use the New York Times as an example: Updates are made constantly to the site, on dozens on pages. If you were to visit the site online, you’d have a hard time finding every update, as you’d see the new articles mixed in with the old and you’d have to know where to look. An RSS feed of NYTimes.com is much easier! The feed consists of a list of links to articles (with the first few lines) that were recently updated or posted. As new articles are published, the list would grow, providing you a way to read through all the newest content quickly, skimming the article headlines for those that interest you. With an RSS feed, you could browse every new article in the site in a matter of minutes.
Taking it to the next step
As an RSS feed is essentially the article link, the first few lines of text, the date and the time, there is no reason to only browse one site at a time. You can browse several feeds at once! (Just an Asterisk Spoiler alert) This is how I manage to “read” hundreds of blogs every day in only about 30 minutes… I subscribe (it’s syndication after all) to all of the feeds that interest me and they are constantly updated with content. I can mark them read as I work my way through, so I can easily differentiate between new and old content.
Enter Google Reader
Google Reader is an online RSS reader. There are tons of different ways to read feeds. However, online browsing has its perks – my feeds are available whenever and where ever I have a moment to spare. I log in with my Google credentials like any other Google site and I can restart my reading from where I left off. I have a consolidated view of all my reading and I don’t have to worry about navigating to 20 sites… Â I also like the short cuts. Â Move to next article is j, back an article is k, and v opens a new window with the site your perusing… Â
Get yourself setup!
Sign in with your Google credentials at reader.google.com.  From here you can add content to your reader.  Click on “Add a Subscription” and put in your search term in the box that appears.  For example, a quick search for “Just an Asterisk” will give you a link to our feed.
From there all you have to do is click on “Subscribe” below the feed name.
You can group your feeds into folders, like our “cool blogs” folder on the left. Â You can also star articles for later (shortcut key “s”) as your reading.
Once you’ve created a folder for something, you can look at all of that content in one view. Â For example, by clicking on my “cool blogs” folder, I can review all of those feeds in one list (in the main pane).
That’s all for now on the reader, but be sure to post anything you think I missed in the comments!
~ab
thanks for the shout out AB.
google reader has fundamentally changed the way i navigate the online world. i used to casually browse sites & blogs because i felt it allowed for the opportunity to stumble upon something new that i would have missed otherwise. but with google reader, i’m able to consume and process more content, quickly satisfying my information fix and leaving plenty of time to seek out new stuff. and with the trends reports, i can see how well i’m keeping up with my subscriptions, making feed maintenance a breeze.
the one downside i’ve noticed is that once you start subscribing to feeds, the sites that you always admired for finding good content (e.g. the daily beast, huffington post, etc..) stop being so impressive. subscribe to the right syndications, and you’ll find the source article/video/post before they do..
i will say tho, that i do have a feature wishlist:
1. when you “star” an item, it’s permanently tagged, so if you ever search your “starred items” you’ll also see stuff you’ve since un-starred.
2. custom views–particularly an ability to sort/filter by date
3. there’s no SENT folder, so if you email an item through the reader application to someone you think might enjoy it, you won’t be able to find it easily unless you also email it to yourself.
otherwise, google reader is a must have for the web junkie..