GOOGLE GREATNESS: Reader

I'll let you in a little secret. Something that can make your life easier. Something that you never knew you needed, but can't live without. It will make you smarter, faster and younger. (well, maybe not younger, but maybe soon!) I *really* discovered google about a year ago when I switched over to Gmail. Since then, I've been in love with everything Google and am constantly discovering new ways to feed my techie-addiction. If you're one of my super-smart friends and already use reader, you're brilliant already and come back tomorrow. Or forward this to some other poor hapless soul who needs to be enlightened.

Google Reader is the servant you've always wished you could have. It's the butler than goes out and fetches all that is news and entertianment. It's the secretary you dream about that does all the filing and organizing. It's the time management coach I need to optimize all the time in my life. Oh yes! It's all that and more!

Go to www.google.com/reader to get started with this wonderful invention. Reader will monitor any website that you suscribe to (as long as it has an RSS feed) and compile all your blog updates into one illustrious place. It lets you orgainze them by topics and puts them in folders. The main screen (shown below) has your folders on the left, showing the number of unread items in each folder. It gives you a sneak peak of the latest feeds in the center, and shows your favorite items on the right side. Look at all those wonderful things I have to read!






Once you click on an individual feed, you see the title, publication time, blog site and specific blogger who is publishing the article. You have the option to STAR the article as a favorite, share it with others or email it anybody (with the names from your Gmail in auto-complete). Genius, genius I tell you!








The left bar shows how many total items you have waiting for your reading pleasure. The bolded folders mean new items, and you can expand the view to see the individual blogs being tracked in that particular folder and which ones have a new feed to view. I *LOVE* seeing my friend folder bold- it just gives me tingles of excitement to get updates from my friends.

The right side shows items that have been starred. It's like my favorite blogs that I want to go back too. See what I'm interested in? I love me some travel and my friend Ashley has a dreamy travel blog just to tease me everyday with the wondeful places I could be instead of at work.

Another fun thing the Reader will do is show you some great numbers. The inner-math nerd loves to see how many things I've read and who is publishing the most. Check out all those feeds! You can also import and export all your blog subscriptions to share with other readers.

Oh, I feel so informed now that I'm a current-events junkie and friend-keeping-up fool these days! And it's all in one place. No bookmarking 60 websites, no compuslive checking for updates. Oh my life is so much better now and I my love for Google just increased a little more.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Now I'll never miss a blog update from all my friends out there!