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I like blogs. I like blogs a lot. But I have three children . . . and responsibilies. A husband . . . and responsibilities. A house . . . and responsibilities . . . or at least desires for how it should be kept up. But I still like blogs.
My problem: I have no time!
There is a solution. Well, if not a solution, then an amelioration. [Ameliorate: to make better or more tolerable.]
The feedreader.
Click to add C&G to a feedreader
The feedreader ameliorates my problem by allowing me to read more blogs in less time. It does this by pulling all my feeds into one place. A feed is the new content that a website (often a blog or a news site) makes available. On a blog, this is the new posts or the summary/teaser for those new posts (the owner of the blog chooses which). So, instead of using links, bookmarks, or favorites (or even worse, typing in the address) to go check Rarely Home Mom and then Everyday I Write the Book and then Robin’s Song and then Visual Anarchy, to see if any of them have new posts, I can check all of my favorite blogs at once.
I was concerned that a feedreader would cause me to spend more time reading blogs every day, when I need to spend less time, but my experience has been just the opposite. The feedreader helps me with my time issues by making blog browsing much more efficient. At any moment, I can see how much new material has been published and where it is. I don’t waste time on blogs that haven’t been updated, but I quickly find out about new material at even infrequently updated blogs (feedreaders check for new content about every 3 hours, but will also check on demand or at any interval you specify). Since I know how much time I have when I look at my feeds, this allows me to budget my reading time. When I am in a hurry, I can scan the titles of the posts and which blogs they are from, and spend more time on the ones that are more likely to be of interest. When I am bored and looking to kill time, I can read every word or go back and read feeds I’d deemed less interesting the day before.
So, if you regularly look at content from at least a handful of the same blogs or other websites, a feedreader is the way to go. There are online options like Googlereader which will allow you to check your feeds from any online computer. I love Google’s suggestions for other blogs I like based on the ones I already read. They are so spot-on it’s scary! Another option is using a reader built in to your browser (Opera, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 7.0), which is probably the easiest option for those of us not on technology’s cutting edge.
Feedreaders have made a big difference for me. If you have questions about how to use a feedreader that I didn’t answer here, please post them below. I’d love to help!
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10 Responses to “How a Feedreader Changed My Life”
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I do love my Google Reader, but sometimes it makes me feel a bit claustrophobic because it shows me JUST how behind I am on my blog reading.
Amen. The Google Reader is wonderful.
Okay, so… I have no understanding of the feed-reader thing. (I’ve read many posts by many people praising it, but … I am slow and … inimical to change! (or, you know… just plain stubborn)).
This is the same thing as “RSS”, yes? or… no?
Does it just tell you where there is new stuff and what the title is, or does it actually “collect” the posts?(and if so, does that mean you just get the words– or what?)
Somehow in the past five or six years I’ve gone from being the person who always posted the screencaps and answered questions like this for newbies to my present state of total ignorance. I’m still “web 1.0″ (well… maybe not that far gone… but 1.6 at best).
RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” It is one of the standard formats in which feeds are delivered (atom is another). Why syndication? When a newspaper columnist or cartoonist is syndicated this means that his or her work is carried by many newspapers nationwide. Blogging has changed the media business. Now an individual doesn’t have to be Charles Schultz, Dave Barry, or Erma Bombeck to be syndicated. You don’t need any talent. All you need is a blog. With a blog, you publish your content to the world. You are syndicated. Your content is delivered via one of these formats like RSS or Atom.
A feedreader (or an aggregator–it aggregates the content into one place) notifies you when new content from your chosen website sources is available. The reader shows you not just the title of the item, but often the full text as well. (Some blogs choose just to send a short summary or a teaser of the post. You must then click on a link which takes you to the site to see the full text.)
Does that help?
I used an RSS feed for a while, but then I quit. I might be wrong, but it seemed to me to cause me to take more time reading blogs than I would otherwise. But perhaps that is because I am not a consistent reader. I read a few regularly, but even then I do a lot of skimming. And I often go several days without looking at any blogs. By delivering a message to me every time new content was posted, the RSS feed “tempted” me to read blogs more than I would have otherwise.
I’ve been using the blog surfer on the dashboard on wordpress, which works pretty well, except that it only lets you access wordpress blogs. I’ll have to figure out how to do that google thing, since I’ve got several non-wordpress blogs I have to click the links on. Thanks for the info!
I love google reader. I like the suggestions, but I also like that I can share and star post I like.
Two features in google reader to help with above comments:
1. You can now turn off the counter so you don’t feel guilty when you are behind
2. I use the keyboard letters ‘j’ and ‘k’ to move down and up in the postings for quick skimming of blog groups.
Hi! Thanks for the sweet comment you left on my blog. Best wishes in the disciplining of your 4 year-old. Some times it is just so tiring getting these kids to behave!!
Thanks, too, for this post on feedreader. I am new to the blogging world and also busy with 3 kids, so I might give this a try!
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