I love reading blogs. I read friends' blogs, family blogs, money blogs, Church blogs, BYU Sports blogs, frugal living blogs, medical blogs, entertainment blogs, news blogs, humor blogs (ok... now I sound really pathetic. I really don't spend all my time reading blogs.).
Anyway, in the olden days, when I found a blog I liked I would send the web address to the "My Favorites" tab in Internet Explorer, and then I would check it every day or so to see if it had been updated with a new post. Needless to say, this wasted a lot of time because many of the blogs I enjoyed were only updated once or twice a week, yet I would check them whenever I sat down at the computer. Then I found "Google Reader" and my blog-reading time was so much better! So... what is Google Reader? Well, Google Reader tracks the blogs you like to read and updates you whenever a new post has been published on each blog (kind of like an email - but it updates in Google Reader instead of sending you an email). So, whenever you sign into Google (or gmail, or whatever), on the top there is a link that says "More" with a down-arrow - and on the bottom of that list it says "Reader". Click that - that's your Reader! (and if you don't have Gmail...well... I guess none of this information really helps. But I'm of the opinion that everyone in the world should have Gmail. It's the best). Anyway, once my Google Reader is open, I can then see a list of all my favorite blogs that have been updated since I last checked in. :) This makes life so much easier!
So, once you've found a blog you like and that you want to keep track of, how do you add it to Google Reader? Well, there are a couple of ways, but here's how I do it: In Google Reader, over on the left side of the page, there is a button that says "Add Subscription". Just cut and paste the URL (that's the web address, Mom...) of the blog you like right there. And Presto! Every time that blog is updated, it will be posted in your Google Reader. You can read the post right there in the Reader, or you can click on the link and read it on the actual blog page. Also, you can separate your blogs into different folders to make everything organized. I have separate folders for family, friends, Church, BYU Sports, humor, news, etc....
I hope this helps at least a few people. And I hope my directions were clear enough that everyone can use Google Reader now! Now you never have to worry about losing track of a blog you like. Including mine. :)
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4 comments:
How do I cut and paste?
Luckily I've had a sage reader for about a year. Makes my life much easier. I used to have to click through everything and it was pretty tedious.
you can actually do that with any kind of rss aggregate. I use bloglines but there are lots available. You can link your blog to an rss aggregate and it'll notify others when yours is updated, but it can also send you headlines from various news sites and other websites too, so you can just kinda scan them all at once without having to go to the different pages for virtually everything you like, not just blogs.
Good tip Hannah. I'll try it out. We use Bloglines here at work, but I will try the Google Reader since it will be right in my email anyway. Thanks!
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