Last Sunday, I started using Google Reader. Google Reader is a feed aggregator web application just like NetVibes, etc. In my most nontechnical definition, it is an online application that manages your feed subscriptions (if you don’t know feeds, you should not be reading this). It’s interface is just like your email, you are notified of unread posts and marks itself read once you read it.
I admit that it is a great timesaver. Before, I used to subscribe to only a number of blogs enough to fit my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar. Only the titles were displayed on my Bookmarks Toolbar Live Bookmarks so I have to view every blog to read the content. Now with Google Reader, I can read multiple blogs in a single tab (I’m a Firefox person) without having to open them one by one.
The result: I’m starting to rely with Google Reader. Since RSS feeds contain only the post, I miss the chance of reading other bloggers comments and visiting their blogs. It could limit me to my current subscriptions.
Resolution: Try not to rely on Google Reader. Revert back to old behavior which is checking each blog of new posts. After hopping through my daily reads, that’s the time Google Reader comes in to check for posts I missed.
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I used Bloglines before, but grew tired of it and used Google Reader ever since. Right now, even though I use it heavily, I still read each post by visiting the post itself.
Please contact Ms. Chimie R. Gamot (email address: ariane43981@yahoo.com) for more information about the upcoming 5th MSITE 2007.
I’m just using Google Reader because usually I only have limited time to read. With Google Reader, I can read everything without having to leave the page. ^_^ I usually just go to a post when I want to leave a comment, just like this. ehhe