I’ve gotten a few comments in the last couple of months, asking about Google Reader and how we can make it work for us. I thought I’d do a real quick overview of the way I use the application in case it might help someone else.
I subscribe, admittedly, to an obscene number of blogs (See below. Looks like I’m up to 1380, although I could have sworn I was around 1,000.)
What is Google Reader? It’s sort of a newspaper with all the blogs you’ve chosen as favorites included in the paper. It’s a quick and organized way to read through all the blogs you subscribe to—and, when the blogs update, your Reader automatically updates, too.
You add blogs to your Google Reader by subscribing to an RSS feed. What’s an RSS feed? I’m not exactly sure. :) Fortunately, it’s not really necessary to understand it to use it. Basically, if you look up at the top of your computer right now, you’ll see an address bar with Mystery Writing is Murder’s address in it. Next to it you’ll see an orange icon of something that looks like a radio wave (like the icon at the top of my blog post.) If you left-click on the icon, it gives you options to subscribe to my blog (or whatever blog you’re on.) Then you can choose “Google Reader” as the way you’d like to read your subscription.
Google Reader is free, but you need to have some sort of a free account with Google—like a gmail address or a Blogspot blog to use the application.
Once you’ve added blogs to your reader, you can read them…either a list view, like this:
Or an expanded view, like this:
If you really subscribe to a lot of blogs (like I do), then you can organize the blogs into different folders/categories.
To create a folder, click on “manage subscriptions” at the very bottom left-hand corner of your page (under “subscriptions.) Then click on the subscriptions tab. Then click “add to a folder” on any of the blog feeds (it doesn’t really matter which one.) At the bottom of the drop-down menu, it will have “add a folder.” Click on that to create a new folder.
Ideas for folders: I love reading writing blogs. If I had my way, I wouldn’t do any work and I’d just read blogs. Obviously, this isn’t a good way to get books written. So to curb myself, I organize blog subscriptions into days of the week and then read those blogs those days. This way I can be sure to read everyone at least some of the time and still get some work done. :)
To page up and down and through your Reader quickly, here are some Google Reader shortcuts to help you out.
Google Reader Housekeeping:
Sometimes you’ll want to go through your Reader and cull some blogs—maybe they’re blogs that haven’t updated for a long time, for example. If you look at the left-hand column on your Google Reader, you’ll see “Your Stuff.” Several items below that is “Trends.” If you click on trends, a screen will pull up that lists blogs that are inactive or obscure…and you can delete your subscription right off the screen.
Hope this helps! Does anyone else have some Google Reader tips to share? Or any questions?
I used to really love google reader but then I kind of got too busy and it was just one more thing to check. I haven’t actually opened my reader in months.
Thanks for reminding us how useful it can be.
Elizabeth – Thanks for the tutorial. It really is helpful to have ways to cut down on the time we spend trying to find things,whether it’s a favorite blog or that stapler that’s gone missing. Google Reader really is a good way to keep blogs organized so you spend less time hunting and more time just reading.
Thanks for this.
I’ve never used it as I didn’t see the point as Blogger has a dashboard system, so I just check that out whenever possible.
But I can see how useful it could be in organising blogs once you’ve reached such a high number!
Great tips. I do have a question. You explained about folders. Can you create a fold where you can tag or save just certain blog posts? An example, since her post explains Google Reader, I’d like to keep it handy. Before what I have done is just click keep it unread. But after awhile my list gets too long. I was wondering if I create a ‘save’ folder and place this post in it, well all of your post go there from now on?
Thanks for any help. Hope this makes sense (too early in the morning, only half cup of coffee so far). :)
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Thanks for this. I don’t currently use Google Reader, but I’ve been thinking about it. Sounds easy enough.
@Piedmont Writer, thanks so much. Works great.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Perfect timing for me. I’m trying to create a schedule for reading blogs for Sept – this is a great help! :)
I have Google Reader on my IGoogle Homepage find it very handy keeping up with Numerous Blogs I follow just takes a quick if something takes my eye and I too have somehow managed to accumulate over 1500 !!!!
Thanks for the tutorial. The amount of blogs I follow grows daily and this would be a great way to keep up with them.
Yee Ghoads. I have my Blogger Dashboard with the blogs I follow and go down that list to see what’s been posted recently, and I can barely keep up with the dozens, not hundreds, that I follow. Kudos to you woman!
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Great post. Just in time for my new Google Desktop app…I like an organized desktop and I just have Twitter & Google Reader there. The Google Reader desktop app updates with whatever settings you have on your web-based Reader. If not for your post, I may have gone a lot longer before seeing that little manage subscriptions link… ;p
Thanks for kick-starting my day toward efficiency!
Thanks, Elizabeth. I’m still looking for the orange radio wave looking thingie.
Karen
I use google reader and love it. Thanks for the great post.
The number of blogs I follow is getting rather scary, although I’m nowhere near your number! Thanks for the tutorial, as I thought I should start using Google Reader, but I had no idea how.
Now to get organized…
@ Mason — I click on the star, at the top left of the article next to the title of the post. It becomes yellow. This will automatically put it in its own folder. Under my subscriptions, (I think) will be a “starred folder”, click on that and all your starred posts will be saved.
Great post Elizabeth. I love Google Reader.
Wow, I’ve had such a difficult time with google reader. I don’t know why. I find it frustrating to come back to it and realize I’ve not read thousands of posts. This is really helpful.
CD
Very helpful, Elizabeth. I have my favorites and follows in Google Reader, but each time I open it up, I’m overwhelmed. Thanks for the hint about folders. I’ll work on that next.
Patricia
I use Google Reader obsessively. Once you start relying on it (by clicking the orange RSS icons) it can be as seductive as following loads of people on Twitter.
It’s the primary way I keep up with bloggers who write about fiction writing, and blogging. I read through what’s been updated each morning and after lunch.
You can mark the most interesting ones to save. I often print those and keep them in a binder I have for instructive posts about writing. I usually Tweet those too.
It can become overwhelming. In addition to writing-related sites (I follow around 70; about 30 of those update daily) I follow a few music and a lot of literary magazine blogs.
This really quickly becomes overwhelming. As much as I want to, I can’t read everything all the time, that’s why I shut it off after my coffee and lunch reading sessions. At least once a week I need to purge everything or I’ll go crazy.
I end up missing out on some posts, but also read much more than I would otherwise.
I really recommend playing around with it if you want to find really interesting stuff and, if you have a Twitter feed, be able to offer some of that to your followers.
Great post! I haven’t seen many on Google Reader.
Thanks for the tips on organzing the blogs. I’m not following nearly as many as you are, but they do pile up.
I am so excited by this post. I think this will be a huge help for me. I can’t wait until I have some extra alone time to work on setting it up. Thanks!
Elizabeth, thanks for making sense of this for me. I’ve wanted to do the Google Reader thing but haven’t because of business and all. But now I think I can put mine together fairly easily using your blog.
Stephen Tremp
Hey this was very useful and helpful, Liz – thanks!
Thank you so much. I’ve been hearing of Google Reader, but knew nothing about it. I have wondered how you possibly keep up with all the blogs you visit! I’m copying this and then seeing if I can set it up.
What a great tutorial on the Google reader and the RSS feed. I had no idea what the RSS feed was, but was embarrassed to admit that in public. Thank you for paving the way for me to share my ignorance of most things technical.
Elizabeth, thank you! No one at BBTCafe seemed to have an answer for me, but I knew there had to be a way to follow more than 300 blogs!!
I’ve been wondering how you get through so much. This looks like it takes a little learning, but not nearly as much as I feared, so I am going to come back and try this… maybe tonight, as I’m off this week–seems a good time to get organized…
Thank you for pulling this all together so I’d stop being a chicken about it!
I’m new to blogging but I already have too many blogs to read daily and make comments on and then get anything else done. I will put this to good use.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
Kit–It’s nice, too, because you can skim really quickly. Then you’ll know which blogs you want to make a comment on, etc.
Cassandra–In your case, I’d immediately do a “mark all as read.” Then it’s not too overwhelming to go back on! And just start back with Google Reader fresh.
Heartbeatoz–It *seems* like it would be hard to find that many blogs to subscribe to, but it’s really not!
Alex–It’s a pretty useful tool, I think.
Margot–Exactly! When I bring up Google Reader, it’s easy to jump right into reading.
Mason– For a favorites folder, like you’re mentioning, Piedmont Writer has the best answer!
Patricia–Good luck with it! Yes, I think it’s easy to miss some of the different parts of Google Reader–it just doesn’t seem to be laid out really logically (not that I’m a web designer or anything! :) )
Lou–Thanks for coming by!
Piedmont Writer–Thanks so much! And thanks for giving the starred post explanation since it took me so long to get back to my comments today (cleaning out my garage…bleh! )
Clarissa–That IS frustrating. I frequently will just click “mark all as read” and start out fresh again. :)
Carol–It IS pretty easy…and you can use it easily on a really basic level instead of managing subscriptions, etc.
Paulo–You sound REALLY organized with it! I like the idea of having a hard copy of some of the posts, too.
That’s how I get my content for Twitter tweets! But you’re right–sometimes we just have to purge the list and start over fresh, even if it means missing some good posts every now and then. It just gets too overwhelming.
Jemi–Hope it works out!
Mary–And quickly!
Jane–Good luck! It shouldn’t take you too long…or at least, it can take as long as you *want* it to, depending on how organized you want to make it.
Terry–Insanity runs in my family. :)
Stephen–Good luck with it! I think you’ll find it’s easy to set up.
Karen–Another way to find it is on my blog pages…on mine, I’ve got “subscribe to posts” and the RSS button about 1/4 or 1/3 the way down the page.
The Old Silly–You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by. :)
Helen–The nice thing is that it makes it really easy to skim or to visit blogs on different days of the week without worrying you’ve forgotten someone.
Elspeth–Since you’ve got a Blogspot blog, you’re really halfway there already!
Patricia–It does help to make it more manageable, I think.
Diane–Sadly, yes, there IS a way to follow even a thousand more than 300! :)
Hart–As far as gadgets go, this one isn’t NEARLY as complicated as Facebook or Twitter. It’s really just a tool, although it looks a little intimidating at first.
N. R.–Hope it helps, Nancy!
I love your days of the week idea! Last year I spent an afternoon organizing everything into alpha folders (Book blogs A-C, Writing blogs A-C etc), with the intent of reading a few alpha folders a day, but the days of the week is a much better idea (I’m forever forgetting which folder I tackled last).
I also got over using the delete button, so when I let a folder get out of hand, I no longer hesitate to delete all unread posts. It stops me from feeling overwhelmed!
Elizabeth, I just signed up and spent some time creating folders. I don’t follow near as many as you, but this will definitely make it easy to not miss anyone. Thank you!
Maryann–I think RSS is sort of like electricity. We don’t have to know how the electricity goes through copper and breakers, etc…because we know it’s there and it’ll operate our coffeemaker or light switch. I only have the foggiest of notions how RSS works, but I use it daily despite my ignorance of it.
Belle–I tried it the way you mentioned, too–I have food blogs, finance blogs, parenting blogs..but 98% writing blogs. It seemed harder for me to do it that way. With the days of the week, I just open up the folder and don’t have to worry about it.
Absolutely! It’s just like the pile of magazines that builds up on our coffeetable sometimes. Will we ever *really* get the chance to read them all? I recycle magazines when they get overwhelming and I do the same with Google posts.
Helen–Oh good! I’m glad it helped and hope it’ll continue to keep you organized. :)
This is excellent information. Thank you so much! I’m bookmarking this page.
Good info. I have Google reader, but I never use it. I guess I need to take some time to play with it.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Ooo – I did a guest post on this recently myself:
http://www.3rsblog.com/2010/06/clearing-out-blog-closet-by-molly.html
I use the same Days of the Week process that you do. But I prefer reading my feeds via Feedly – have you ever given it a look?