Google reader is a browser based application that enables you to receive updates or notifications from anywhere on the web that has an rss feed – the little symbol (usually orange) with the embossed radio waves.
Basically, instead of you having to keep visiting all the websites you follow to see if they’ve made an update, you simply subscribe to those websites from your Google reader, and whenever there is an update, you’ll be automatically notified within the Google reader application. Think of Google reader like your email program. You don’t go to the outboxes of your friends and contacts to see if they’ve left you a message – instead, when they send you a message, you get automatically notified in your email program. Same deal with Google reader, except that it’s a program to receive automatic updates from websites instead of emails.
So, the first reason for you to start using Google reader is that it saves time and organizes new information.
But Google reader is so much cooler than that. Check this out – it can help you find the information you’re after. Rather than using Google’s search function to find websites, you can search for valid RSS feeds right within Google reader and easily add them to your reading list with the click of a button.
So, what do you do with all this information that is being automatically delivered to you? Simple – use it to stay on top of whatever it is you want to stay on top of – your hobby, your industry, your brand or product, your name, your business name, people you follow, politicians, celebrities, authorities, bloggers.
Anything else? You betcha – and this is huge – you can share information with other people. This is where Google reader stops being a simple RSS reader and becomes a social networking tool of sorts.
What does ’sharing’ mean?
It just means that you let your network know that you’ve found a cool and relevant article, blog, news story, image, video – or whatever – and you can do that from within Google reader. And not only is it just pushing a link to people, you can add your own notes to the ‘push’ so that when people receive the article, they can see it’s from you.
It gets funkier than that – but I think I’m done for this post. Stay tuned for more stuff from me on this. In fact, why don’t you subscribe to my RSS feed in your Google reader account before you forget. Hey – and if you don’t have Google reader yet – you can go get it here –> Get Google Reader.
Nic
