Google Reader

I've only been using Google Reader for a few months. My friend Rain was the first one to tell me about RSS, but I never really paid attention to it. I figured that if I had a site I wished to read on a regular basis, I could just bookmark it and visit it whenever I feel like it.

However, I didn't count on the evolution of sites... or on my rather fickle and very easily distracted interest in these sites or blogs. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say fickle, as I do still read them. It's just that as I get to see more and more blogs I want to read, the older ones get covered by the newer, to the point that I sometimes forget about them.

I wasn't too keen on using RSS readers either. Back when I first began to blog, RSS were mostly text and often truncated versions of the actual posts. It wasn't until I became aware of Google's Reader did I truly began to appreciate RSS feeds.

I'm not here to promote it, as there are many readers out there ad GR may not be the first choice for people, especially those who have been using RSS feeds for a while now. I do, however, find it very convenient and easy to use, thus it's my primary reader. I like how I can create folders to organize my feeds (the downside is if I want to categorize them under more than one labels, the feed is repeated). It's also cool how I can "star" an entry that I find interesting, and even share it with others who are on my friends list in GR. And even if you don't have GR, all my shared items can be seen in my profile page, so you can view that too.

Plus, GR actually shows you the pictures and embedded videos the post has (if any). It's laid out as exactly as it would be on the site itself. That, for me, was the huge selling point of Google Reader as opposed to the others I've tried.

Adding a feed to the reader is easy too. You know how some readers need you to input the feed url itself in order to subscribe (that's for the sites that don't have a subscribe option, but then, that's a rarity)? Just click on "Add subscription", paste the URL and the reader looks for the feed link for you. Neat. (Note: As I haven't really used any other reader aside from this, I can't say if other readers have a similar feature. If you know that they do, let me know.).

I mostly have my friends' blogs added to GR, along with the blogs of people whose works I admire. I also noticed that I have plenty of design blogs added, as well as art blogs and sites. Like in most tech things, when I figure out how to use something that fulfills my basic need, I rarely explore it. Suffice to say, I know I haven't maximized GR just yet, but for now, I'm a happy camper.