If you only read one or two blogs, it’s easy to visit them regularly to check for new posts. If they are blogs that post once and only once a day, that undoubtedly works well. However, most of us find more and more blogs we like and want to read. Some publish once a day, others 5-6 times a day. Some update once a week, and still others much more sporadically. Some blogs we like to read every post, but others vary their content and we may only want to read the posts related to birds, or the southwest, or the weather.
How do you keep up with all this and stay sane, while not missing any of the content you love and want to read? That’s where a newsfeed (often referred to as an RSS feed or simply as a feed) plays a role. A newsfeed sends you an update whenever there’s a new post on a blog that you are following or subscribed to. You can read feeds in your web browser, but it’s often more convenient to use a feedreader. Bloglines and GoogleReader are two popular feedreaders. I use both, but find GoogleReader to be easier to configure and use, and to have fewer glitches and interuptions.
Here’s CommonCraft’s explanation of RSS feeds and readers:
The advantages I appreciate in using a feedreader are that I don’t miss posts (the reader accumulates the posts until I am ready to read them), I can save and share posts, and I can skim titles or summaries and decide whether or not to read the complete posts or to visit the blog itself. I would guess most of you have a core set of blogs you always read – I know I do. You may also, like me, have other blogs that you follow less closely or as time permits but still want to keep an eye on. Feedreaders let you have the best of both and manage them easily.
I’ll put a more links to explanations and instructions at the end of this post, and of course you can use Google’s and Bloglines’ help pages as well. If you’d like to practice, I recommend subscribing to the Nature Blog Network Blog newsfeed. Click the SUBSCRIBE link in the menubar above and add to your reader of choice. Of course, any of the authors would be delighted for you to subscribe to our individual blog feeds as well – you can find them on our websites, which are linked to the author photos in the right sidebar.
Helpful links:
Newbie’s Guide to Google Reader (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9745368-2.html)
How to Use Google Reader by Andy Wibbels (http://andywibbels.com/flash/google_reader.htm)
Google Reader in Plain English (http://www.commoncraft.com/reader)
11 Comments
I read waaaaaay to many blogs and many of them are birding blogs. I could not do it without Google Reader. If you play around under the hood (ie.,in the settings and options) you will find that there are some buttons you can drag to the toolbar of your browser that let you skim through the posts with one click. It just shows you the next post in your queue. Further fiddling will show that you can sort your feeds into topics so you can read all your bird blogs at one time or all your teaching blogs or writing blogs or well, maybe that’s just me. Anyway, yup, GReader is a GOOD thing!
I agree with Liza, include me in the GReader love. It makes it possible to follow blogs I otherwise would forget about, especially those I like but that don’t update as often as others.
Plus I’m looking forward to fiddling with it on her recommendations.
I couldn’t survive without a feed reader. Not tried google as I use the Opera browser which has an integrated reader. Makes it easier to keep track of (currently) around 80 sites.
I agree with all of the above, and like Liza, have become very fond of GR’s “Next” bookmarklet, which, in Firefox at any rate, lets one go from one subscription to another without using the GR shell at all, going instead directly to the next unread blog post in your subscriptions (or a tagged subset thereof). This not only relieves the monotony of a single interface and lets me enjoy those blogs that are well-designed, but also gets around the problem of partial-content feeds, and also registers my visits for people who look at their stats. And I don’t have to click through to leave a comment – I’m already there. You can find this bookmarklet under Settings -> Goodies -> “Put Reader in a bookmark.” I also use Google reader to managage and display a blogroll, which means that I only have to worry about keeping my subscription list clear of dead feeds, and don’t have to try and remember to keep updating and pruning a blogroll in addition.
(“Managage”? Yikes!)
Liza, N8, Words, and Dave – I agree with all of you. The bottom line is convenience and control. I can read so many more blogs when I use GR to manage them. I work directly from the reader interface, because I like to group my feeds by type and intensity: Photo, humor, news, nature, quick reads, and a short never-miss list.
I’ve been using Google Reader for a few years and couldn’t live without it. It’s great to use on the mobile, allowing me to keep up to date wherever I am.
Leaving comments via the mobile can be frustrating at best but using a reader, I can just star posts and come back to them on the PC later.
I do the same thing, Paul. The mobile GR is great for monitoring and skimming, but not so good for interactions. Still, it lets me clean out the news items and short pieces so that there isn’t so much clutter when I’m back home. That means it’s less likely I’ll miss something of interest.
Everyone here seems to be using Google Reader, which I have struggled with for some reason. This weekend I signed up with Bloglines, and I’m pretty pleased with it so far. It has a feature that I really like, which is a “subscribe with Bloglines” bookmarklet you can put in your bookmarks toolbar: you can click it to activate the subscription rather than hunting for an RSS icon or other subscription icon within the blog (sometimes they are hard to find, or non-existent).
By the way, thanks for this post, as I did find it informative. I hope you will continue to publish tech-style posts from time to time to help keep those of us still new to the blogosphere up to speed on the available (and emerging) technology.
Heather, thank you so much for the feedback. We are planning to continue posting about technology and tools for bloggers. Let us know what else you’d like to learn about and also any other subjects you’d like to see discussed here.
By the way, I have a similar bookmarklet I use for subscribing with Google Reader. There are also bookmarklets for next & previous post, which I don’t use. But that’s not to say that Bloglines won’t work as well or better for you. Like Mac or PC preferences, there’s no absolute right answer.
Wren, found this post of yours after I had written my my blog post on “blogging for birders”. I agree that the Google reader is essential for keeping up reading many blogs. And thanks for those links. Very useful.
Also, check out the Free Range RSS reader app for Blackberry and Smart Phones. Makes it easier to read the blogs on the phone.
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