Google Reader

My friend Catherine told me about Google Reader a few months ago, and I got hooked immediately. I don’t know all the ins and outs yet, but I’ll tell you what I know and then you can decide if you want to try it yourself.

Google Reader allows you to “subscribe” to your blogs and have them all appear in the same place. For instance, when I logged in this morning, there was my list of blogs I’m following on the left. Next to each one, there is a number in parentheses telling me how many posts have been published that I still haven’t read yet. When I clicked on my RWA blog, A Slice of Orange, the most recent of 16 unread posts appeared. As I scrolled down and read or skimmed each post, the number in parentheses decreased. (It now says 9. I really don’t have time to read now!)

(As an aside, if you use Word and want some cool tips, go to A Slice of Orange, scroll down to the list of “Topics” on the right and choose “Writer’s Word.” There are some great posts about using some of Word’s great features.)

Last week I told you how to have multiple tabs open in your web browser so you wouldn’t miss visiting your favorite sites. Once I added my favorite blogs to Reader, I went back and deleted them from my “home pages” in my browser, and then I added Reader to my home pages. Yay! Nice and clean and organized.

If you have a Gmail account or a Goggle account, you can sign in and get to Google Reader. If not, I think you just have to go to http://www.google.com/reader to create an account. (Remember I’m new to this and I already had a Gmail account, so I’m not sure how to create a new account. But if you have a blog on Blogger, you likely have a Google account now.)

I know there are other ways to do this – in Yahoo, and through RSS Feeds, and probably lots of other ways – but here is one more way for you to get your reading organized. And you don’t have to remember how many days ago you stopped reading – Reader remembers. Yay! When I have time to kill after the movers have come and gone, I’ll go read or skim the dozens of posts I’m missing. It makes me feel like *I* am controlling my time; I’m not being pulled into the current and swept along when I need to be doing something else.

If you have tips and tricks to share on Google Reader, or any other way to organize your online reading, please share them here! I’m sure lots of people will find it interesting and helpful.