The Way I Read Blogs: Google Reader

A few years ago now I came across a post on a blog that talked about Google Reader. I had no idea what it was and didn’t care to learn because I thought it’d be complicated and over my head. Well after I read up on it some more I thought I’d give it a shot. Now probably two years later I use it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. to read all my favorite blogs. I’ve been meaning to write this because it has made everything so convenient for me and I wanted to share!

So what is it?

Basically it is linked up in my case, to my gmail account. I login to my account and on any given day this is what it looks like.

You’ll see on the left, the names of the blogs I read. Those that are bold with a number next to it, are blogs with new posts and the number of posts that are “unread” by me.

After clicking on one with new posts (Enjoying the Small Things) you’ll see the blog entry in the main reading area. From there you just read it right in your main screen like you would if you went directly to the blog URL itself. The only thing you don’t see that you would if you went to the site, is the website’s layout, header, design, etc. But I don’t need to see all those ads, crazy headers, layous, etc…. I just want the goods. As in the post itself and it’s contents.

This helps me because any new blog I want to follow, I can simply Subscribe to by adding the URL to the Subscribe box at the top left. You click subscribe, and paste the URL into the box and hit Add. Then it’s automatically added to your list. I don’t have to remember to go check all my blogs every day in several different locations. They’re all right here and I don’t miss not even one entry.

I couldn’t live without it  

This may be old news to you, but if you don’t know about it yet, I hope it changes your life. Simplifying is what it’s all about!

Oh and in case you already have Reader and you’re not seeing my layout, I just updated it so I must share  

You can sign up for Google Reader here.

I think it’s my most favorite yet!

Oh and for those who were asking, I added a few new features to subscribe to the blog. You can find them on the right hand side.

Update: After changing my layout around, I noticed no matter what HTML fix I made, pictures that had been previously posted were cut off. I had to resize the main wrapper so the right hand side stuff shifted. However, it is now right under the header so you can’t miss it!