by Amira Colter

Created on: April 16, 2010

With the profusion of online newspapers, magazines, blogs and other outlets for information, it takes a significant amount of time (read: a good part of the day) to just keep up. Most people have varied interests and as such read and jump from one site to another. Enter Google reader. What Google reader does is integrate all the stuff that users regularly follow online into an all-in-one, personalized, easy to use page. Sounds great eh?

As we’ve pretty much had down pat what a Google reader is, the next step would be – if your interest is piqued enough – to try it out, right? Like a magazine with all your favorite writers pooled in or a newspaper with the dream team of columnists, Google reader is a one-stop, all-in one place reading page for the voracious internet info-trawler (no offense meant as I am one). Saves a lot of time and ensures you never miss your regular dose of information and news.  

To start to take advantage of Google reader, log in to your Google account or sign up for one. Once you are logged in, you are directed to a page that shows a collection of tastefully-chosen snippets from various websites. Look around and get a feel for the overall page outline. All the tabs you need to personalize, edit, share, follow, browse and note stuff is on the left side of the page. Google reader also has a spot for its recommended items and sources. Once you’re familiar with the page and how it works out, you can then get down to the business of personalizing your Google Reader.

To add your content to Google reader, click the ‘Add a subscription’ button. Out comes a browser to paste feeds and urls of your sites of choice. Things can get a little tricky here but as most blogs, newspapers, and magazines with a sizeable following allow readers to subscribe to their feeds, it will only be a matter locating the familiar RSS feed orange cube and clicking it. Otherwise, just copy and paste the site url on your Google reader.

Part of the genius of Google reader is that it’s easy to manage. Adding and deleting feeds are as easy as clicking a small (trash bin) icon under ‘Manage your subscription’. If you need suggestions on what feeds to subscribe to, Google reader also offers ‘Feed bundles’ which are basically a collection of feeds that Google prepackaged for easy loading. Divided into categories such as ‘Sports’, ‘News’, ‘Staff Picks’, ‘Trends and Fashion’ to enumerate a few. Individual feeds from each bundle can be easily removed or added, making it easy to maintain a fresh, interesting collection of feeds.

Go to google.com/reader to discover for yourself just how easy it is to have all your favorite feeds in one page.  

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