Tyler's Blog Death of Destiny

Google Reader

I don't know how many times I've blogged about Google Reader, but I know I still have readers that haven't tried it, and thus I'm blogging about it again.

Google Reader is an RSS/Atom aggregator. This is probably meaningless to a lot of my readers, so here's a very quick and simplified explanation. Websites that feature frequent updates are pretty much guaranteed to have something called an RSS (or Atom or another type of) feed. This RSS feed updates automatically whenever the website updates. What an RSS aggregator (like Google Reader) does is it keeps track of all your RSS feeds that you supply to it, and then it notifies you when they are updated.

At this point, some people are probably thinking that Google Reader is a waste of time because they can simply go to their websites and read it there. True (that you can simply read the website), but Google Reader helps you to save time in doing so. Instead of checking multiple sites--potentially several times a day--for updates, Google Reader enables you to check only one page where all updates can be viewed at the same time.

To give a more concrete use of how Google Reader is useful, I will now give a glimpse into how I use my Google Reader; hopefully it will demonstrate how this tool can be used to help make your internet browsing more productive.

Currently, my Google Reader houses 5 folders of feeds:

1. Blogs
   I read many bloggers, and Google Reader makes this possible. With an assortment of blogs ranging from those from the UBC Blog Squad (I subscribe to all of its members) to the Death of Destiny bloggers (I also subscribe to all of them), and from some of the Vancouver Sun bloggers to random bloggers who blog about different topics (such as science, running, and study habits), my blogs folder contains over 50 blogs that my Google Reader keeps track of for me.
2. Comics
   Unfortunately, I'm not all productivity, and thus I also follow a few webcomics. Two of these include xkcd and Mega Tokyo.
3. Journals
   This really demonstrates my inner-nerd... ...*sigh*... ...anyhow, I subscribe to over 10 scientific journals (most of which are virology related) and I read some of the papers that I think will be interesting (and also at a comprehension level that I can currently understand XD). That being said, I don't read all of them--keep reading to find out how to quickly skip past uninteresting articles.
4. News
   Because the newspaper isn't always readily available to me when I have an opportunity to read, I subscribe to several sections of many newspapers. Like noted in my Journals category, much of these articles aren't on topics that interest me, so I skip past many of these quite frequently...
5. Health Watches
   A second bout of my nerdiness, this folder houses alerts from the WHO, the CDC, and other similar websites that send out updates when interesting details about things such as Swine Flu, Avian Flu, and Ebola virus outbreaks.

In addition to these folders, I also have several unclassified feeds such as UBC updates, my Facebook notifications, and Twitter updates from my CHEM 233 professor. I also have a bunch of forums that I follow (which could probably be organized into a Forums folder...); I find Google Reader especially useful for these, although RSS feeds for forums seems to be a fairly recent update...

Hopefully, the above provided some insight into how useful Google Reader may be. If you're interested in trying it, it's a real simple process. If you have a Google account (ie. GMail account), you're already set-up with a Google Reader account. Otherwise, you just need to sign up for a free Google account before you can use Google Reader. Below I've included some tips/suggestions for use after you have access to your Google Reader account.

Adding a subscription is usually a pretty simple process. All you have to do is click the "Add a subscription" button at the top of your menu, and then type in (or copy and paste) the URL of your desired website to follow. Google Reader will then automatically search for and select the RSS feed of the website. After this, the feed will be added (uncategorized) to your list of feeds below on the menu. From here, you can drag and drop the feed into any folders you make. However, I should note that Google Reader is not flawless with finding feeds. Rarely, and I mean rarely, you'll have to manually look for and identify a website's RSS feed and then copy and paste the URL of the RSS feed directly into the required spot. It's one extra step, and thus requires a bit more effort, but I repeat, it's rare that this extra step is required; the process is usually completed in one step.

One thing I suggest you do is set your Google Reader to display only articles that are unread. Thus, any articles that you have previously read will be (initially) hid from your view. To do this, select "All items" from the menu, and then select "X new items" (where X is a non-negative integer) from the Show: options. If you want to go back and view old items after you have read them all, you can either select "All items" from the Show: options, or you can select "View all items" from the feed display window (it will be pretty obvious in the large window where articles usually appear).

One thing I didn't learn until this year were keyboard shortcuts. These things actually help increase efficiency TENFOLD. The main one I use is the "j" button. The "j" button automatically skips to the next article in your list of (likely) unread articles. Thus, if you subscribe to many RSS feeds, and your articles stack up rapidly (I don't usually get huge bursts, but I did get 400 in one day before), you can quickly read their title and then skip it if it sounds boring, or read it otherwise. This tool is also used by people who power through Google Reader articles; I've read about many people who get over 1000 updates per day (it's part of their job to keep up to date with everything), so I'm guessing the "j" shortcut is a favorite feature of theirs. Anyhow, click here for a complete list of Google Reader shortcuts, and click here for Google's list of "Power Readers" (a list of influential people and what they subscribe to).

Another interesting feature provided by Google Reader is the ability to share selected articles. This feature goes hand-in-hand with another feature: the ability to follow your friend's readers. If your friend follows your reader, and you share article X, then article X will appear in your friend's Google Reader. It's a really quick way to find and share articles of interest with people with similar interests.

Also, one quick note as mentioned in a previous post, if anybody uses iGoogle, NetVibes, or any other similar program/website, Google Reader is often compatible with those websites as well :)

Anyhow, I hope this article was useful, and I hope I've converted the unconverted into using (or at least trying) Google Reader. Let me know if you want any more information (or if I've forgotten something that you find important).

Also, feel free to leave your opinion of Google Reader, whether it be positive or negative, here so other people can see what other people think of the tool. Hopefully Google Reader will make your time on the internet more productive :)