Friday, April 24, 2009

Feeding the Reader

Though the 27 Things has recommended Bloglines as a newsreader to explore, I confess to already having an account set up with Google Reader. I set it up back before I really knew anything about RSS feeds, but figured that I should wade in before I got too behind the curve. At the time, I had actually read quite a few blog entries that compared Bloglines (the established and trusted reader) to Google Reader (the newcomer, and the latest entry in Google's arsenal for world domination), and chose to go with Google simply because I already had a Gmail account.

I found it very easy to use and set up, especially considering the tendency for many blogs and newsfeeds to have a one-click method of subscription. Within a few days, I had a pretty robust list of feeds to follow.

These days, I tend to use my reader in fits and starts... I'll be logged in and reading daily for a week or two, and then I'll forget for a few weeks, only to log in later and play catch-up on the hundreds of posts I missed. My current feed roster is as follows:

Comics
Penny Arcade (warning: saucy language ahead)
Penny Arcade Downloadable Content (podcast)

Games
Slashdot: Games

Libraries
grandCENTRAL
iLibrarian
Librarian.net
Librarian in Black
Libraryman
ALA Office for Information Freedom Blog
The Shifted Librarian

Personal Blogs
WWdN: In Exile

And of course, now that blogs from numerous colleagues are sprouting up due to 27 Things, I might have to add some of them, as well.

The ironic thing is that, as of this morning, my newsfeed reader didn't include any actual news feeds. So, I just went searching for various feeds through Associated Press, CNN, and the Sacramento Bee (all news sites that I typically follow individually) and added them to my Google Reader, which now boasts an impressive total of 251 unread items. I guess I have some more catching up to do.

2 comments:

  1. I think I'm going to go with Google as well and I love Slashdot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Google Reader for me, too. I actually read my feeds every morning so they don't pile up. I'm kind of an addict.

    ReplyDelete