Google Reader Tutorial

If you read blogs, look at Flickr pictures, catch up on the news, or view webpages that have "RSS", "Atom", or "Subscribe to our Feed" on them then you need to check out this little guide... I don't cover every detail about using the reader because I assume you are not mentally handicapped. And besides they've got help files if you need it.

The Pre-Tutorial on how to find feeds for your reader is here.

Definitions
feed - any RSS (I prefer to think "really simple syndication") or Atom or whatever, its just a file that has the newest info that is posted to a site. For a blog, the feed contains that last few posts and sometimes only a summary of the post. A feed is usually one file that is constantly updated or is generated by a script.
reader - a program (online or downloadabe) that collects feeds and allows you to view them in one interface.

Why?
You need a reader because it does a lot of work for you. It fetches new posts from your favorite blogs, you'll never miss a post if you a reader. It remembers what you've already read. Why go to fifty sites when you can just go to one? And depending on the reader it can provide other nice features as labels/tags, search, and sharing.

Google Reader
These are my tips for using Google Reader.

• Label your feeds in a few categories. I use photos, news, entertainment, family, real-friends, blog-friends. This helps me plow through the 100 or so posts the reader collects for me each day. Since I subscribe to Flickr feeds, there are tons of photos waiting for me each morning. In order to find post from my blog friends I really need to filter those photos out!





• Use the "blog this" option. I like to keep track of where I post comments so I can follow up on the later. When I post to a blog (I right click the title of the post in the reader and open it in a new window) I also blog it to my comment tracker blog (you can use blogs for all sorts of things note taking, reminders, favorites lists).





• Export your feeds, it's always good to have a backup!

• Share your feeds! This feature is kind of cool, but doesn't work perfectly. Basically it lets you see what other people read. You could call it an aggregator because it essentially collects several feeds and makes them into one! And it gives you html you can add it to any webpage you like. I have a testpage up here. And I have attempted to stick my "family" tagged blogs below. If it works then it will always have the last 5 posts made here, on Kathryn's blog, or on Perszyk 101.
  

(So Blogger doesn't let me put scripts into my pages through their editor, I put the above content in manually, but you should be able to put the sharing script stuff in to your sidebar)

What I think would be good right now is for me to field any questions. Need help, just ask!