10 reasons to use Google Reader

Posted by Ben on November 27, 2008 | Permalink | Hits: 1205 

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Google Reader is a great tool for keeping track of new content on blogs via a site feed. If you're not already sold on the idea of using a feed reader, here are 10 reasons why you should consider Google Reader.

1. The All Items view.

Subscribing to several different blogs can quickly become unmanageable. Subscribe by email and your inbox will get flooded with new posts. Subscribe using Live Bookmarks in Firefox and you'll have loads of feeds to check through, one by one. Don't subscribe and use regular bookmarks, and you'll be checking loads of sites frequently, many of which will not have new posts as often as you check them.

Google Reader - All items view

Google Reader solves these problems with the "All Items" view. All of the posts across all the feeds you subscribe to will be displayed here. You can easily see which ones you have and haven't read. Very handy if you have time to do some reading and don't really know where to start. You can start here!

2. Starred items.

Found a really great post? Want to keep track of the posts you've commented on? Just feel like giving out a "yellow star" for the sake of it?



Starred items are what you're looking for. You can see starred items in each feed with the non-starred items surrounding them, or you can view all starred items in the "Starred items" view. Surprisingly enough.

3. Discover new feeds.

Looking for some new sites to read? Can't find any interesting blogs? Google Reader allows you to discover new feeds using the "Discover" link. It's like the Discovery channel, but without being on TV, and without quite such an incredible sense of discovery. There's still a slight sense of it, though.



Not impressed with the recommended feeds? No problem! Click the Browse tab and you can search for new sites. Just like Google! Well, it is Google, but within Google Reader. Neat, huh?

4. Tags.

If you're not reading new posts across several sites, or going back through the archives of your favourite sites, how do you keep track of the best posts? You could "star" them, but if you're starring a lot of items, it's going to get somewhat disorganised. That's where tags come in.



After reading a post, click on the "Add tags" link at the bottom. A box will pop up, where you can enter one or more tags (separated by commas). Click the Save button when you're done. Now, if you want to find posts with that tag in future, click on the name of the tag at the bottom of your subscription list.

5. Feed reading and emails are separate.

This is an interesting one. I've heard quite a few people saying they like to subscribe by email, and a separate feed reader would be a pain because "it's one more thing to check".

Well, let's look at this realistically. How many blogs do you already check one by one for new posts? How many do you revisit to see new comments and so on? How much email do you get? How many other sites do you check, e.g. forums?

I tried subscribing by email before I tried Google Reader, and it worked at first. But as I subscribed to more and more blogs, my email went nuts. Sure, I could filter things using labels in Gmail, but isn't that "just another place to check" too?

Sometimes you're not in the right frame of mind to read blogs. Sometimes it's good to read lots of posts without being interrupted by email.

Of course, it's ultimately your call, but I find this a BIG benefit.

6. Sharing.

Found a post you'd like your friends to see? Use the "Share" link at the end of the post.



You can then view your shared items by clicking the Shared items link under Your stuff.



You'll also notice the "Friends' shared items" link, where you can see the posts shared by your friends. Here's what my list of shared items looks like within Google Reader.



You can also see my shared items in a separate page.

7. iGoogle integration.

iGoogle is a personal homepage that can be used to link to all sorts of stuff. Google Reader is one of the things you can add. Start by clicking the "Add stuff" link on the right, then search for Google Reader.



Click the "Add it now" button beneath Google Reader. Then click "Back to iGoogle home".



You can click on the arrow in the top corner of the Google Reader gadget to change the settings. The drop down list allows you to only display items with certain tags.

8. Bulk feed tools.

Unsubscribing from multiple feeds that you subscribed to via email can be a laborious process. Also, there's no way to see a list of ALL the feeds you've subscribed to.

Google Reader lists all of the feeds you've subscribed to, and you can unsubscribe from several in one go quite easily. Click on the Settings link in the top-right corner, then click on the Subscriptions tab.


You can tick the checkboxes down the left-hand side and click the Unsubscribe button to remove multiple subscriptions in one go. You can use the "More actions" drop down list to add tags to feeds. You can rename feeds, and you can filter them. Much better than subscribing by email!

9. Feed stats.

This is just a nice little extra, but can be interesting for sites that don't display their subscriber count, along with seeing the posting frequency. Simply click on the link to view a feed and click on the "Show details" link in the top right corner.



As you can see, these are the stats for my blog, Top Ten Blog Tips. I believe the number of subscribers reflects the number of people who subscribe to my site via Google Reader. FeedBurner currently shows my subscribers at 29, which isn't bad for a blog that's still very new. Aside from the subscriber count, you can also see the posts per week, when the blog was last updated (or is that when it was last checked? I didn't post 2 hours ago), plus a graph of the items posted vs. the items you've read. You can use the links to look at the data in three different ways.

10. Trends.

Are you someone who loves stats? Well, I am. Clicking on the "Trends" link on the left-hand side of Google Reader reveals all sorts of information. Check this out.



This is just the graph though. It gets better.



Now that's some breakdown! Here, you can see your reading trends and subscription trends. These can be a great way to manage a lot of feeds - which ones are you reading? Which ones are posting new content? If you're clicking "Mark all as read" more often than you're clicking into the posts and reading the content fully, these stats will reflect that. Plus, as ever, there are plenty of additional stats here so you can analyse your reading habits further.

In summary

If you're still convinced that subscribing without using Google Reader is the best way to keep track of your site feeds, I'm never going to change your mind. This is one heck of a tool. I learned a lot just by writing this post. I hope you've learned something by reading it.

So, those are my 10 best reasons for using Google Reader! Can you think of any others? Do you already use Google Reader? If not, will you give it a try?

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Comments on 10 reasons to use Google Reader

11

Ben | November 29, 2008 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Thanks for the comments everyone. :)

A - best to catch up during quiet periods. I read 100 posts today!

Kathy - I vaguely remember, I used to do the same, but I got sick of clicking into each feed individually to see the new items there. Google Reader does allow you to do that too, but the All Items view is what works best for me when I have lots of posts to catch up on.

Babs - thanks for subscribing!

Lyndi - I've only had to do that a couple of times. If someone has to keep marking everything as read, I'd suggest they review whether they could cut down on the number of feeds they subscribe to. :)

Sweet Mummy - I briefly looked at Bloglines but didn't like it. I forget why, I'd have to look again. As I said above, if you can't keep up, perhaps you need to unsubscribe from a few feeds. How many sites do you subscribe to?

Jane - you'll be fine!

Laura - I'm not sure I understand your gripe with feeds - if a feed doesn't work, do you tell the author? I always do, I figure I'd like to be told if my feed broke for some reason. As for visiting the sites, I do that sometimes, but first and foremost I'm interested in the content. I don't care if a site changes its design if there's no decent content. (and I'll be the first to admit I used to change my design more than adding new content long before I had a blog.)

Carol - most sites provide the full content of each post in the feed. You read it in your feed reader. But you can go to the site if you want to leave a comment. That's the way I do it.

16

Ben | December 09, 2008 | Ben's home page | 207 comments

Chris, why not just leave the posts as unread instead of starring it? I guess the end result is the same.