Thursday, October 23, 2008

Google Reader

Have you ever used a reader to keep track of your blogs? Do you know what that is? I didn't either until fairly recently and even then I didn't use it much. I actually didn't realize how fun a reader was going to be!

I started off with Bloglines and I really do like several of their features. Not to mention that I really dislike change and I was used to the way Bloglines worked...but

a little while ago some of the blogs that I subscribed to weren't getting updated quickly. Days even. A few of them went a few weeks. I also had some trouble getting the link to work immediately.

Immediately means - 10 seconds is a LOOOOONG wait.

Sometimes I had to click TWICE! goodness


Well, all of this to say that I tried a new reader last week.

Google Reader
to be exact. I subscribed to about a dozen blogs to see how I'd like the new reader service. I love my gmail email account and I'm quite fond of the Google search, so why not try out the Google Reader.

All of the blogs that subscribed to were updated daily and within a few hours of a new post. There was literally no delay, when I clicked on the link the blog came up. I didn't have to wait 10 seconds or even 5 seconds. The one thing I am not loving is that I have to actually click a button to mark the blog as read. In Bloglines, as soon as I opened the blog in the reader, it was marked as read unless you wanted to save it. In Google Reader I haven't found an easy way to save a post I want to refer to - but I'm sure I will get the hang of it.

I have decided to use Google Reader as my primary reader. I like the way it looks, I like the way it is displayed on my screen and I didn't have any trouble at all subscribing to a blog.

If you are looking for a reader, if you are looking for a place to get all of your news feeds in one place, if you are looking to start reading more blogs than just mine, then head on over to Google Reader and take the tour. There is a a demo on how to use Google Reader at the link I gave you.

Check it out.
Kristin

5 comments:

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

I have been using the blogger one and like it. I have never tried google, but like you am resistant to change....

Brian Shih said...

The way Google Reader works by default is that when you open a feed, as you read through each item, it automatically marks them as read for you. If you just open the feed and never go through and read each item, it won't mark them as read -- you can tell it to mark everything as read by clicking the button to do so though.

As for keeping stuff to read later, I find the best way to do that is to star the post, and then go back and look through your starred items.

Hope this helps!

tarable said...

I'm with Brian - I "star" posts all the time that I want to go back to. And I love that as I scroll through and read posts they are automatically marked as read, but I can also "mark all as read" for a blog, or mark individual posts as unread too. Mess with the settings because I think I saw some choices in there about how they count posts as "read."

Kristin - The Goat said...

I have been playing with the star feature -- It worked! SO thanks so much to Brian and Tarable, thanks for reminding me that I hadn't responded! I meant to, but got carried away with my new found knowledge. lol

Kristin

Anonymous said...

I love my Google Reader too! And I star posts as well.