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In What is RSS and why should you care?, I explained what RSS is, and how to subscribe to RSS feeds in your browser. (If you didn't read it and you're unsure what RSS is, I'd suggest reading that blog entry before you read this one.)This time, I'm going to look at Google Reader, which is an aggregator, or a feed reader. It provides a handy way to keep track of content across many different sites.
Access Google Reader.
Go to http://www.google.com/reader - you'll need a Google Account to be able to log in. This is used for other Google services such as Gmail and Google Calendar. If you don't have an account, click on Create an account, then fill in the fields. When you've got your account, go back to the Google Reader welcome page (click on the above link) and log in.
Find a site that you want to subscribe to.
Remember in the previous tutorial, we clicked on the orange feed icon at the end of the location bar to subscribe to a feed? You need to find a site that has one of those icons.
If you haven't already subscribed to my site or you've subscribed by email, go to my home page and click on the orange feed icon. In the list that pops up, click on the first item. You should end up at my feed, which is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Benbardencom. Highlight this address and click CTRL+C to copy it to the clipboard.
Add a subscription in Google Reader.
In Google Reader, click on the Add subscription text on the left-hand side of the screen. Doing so will open a box that looks like this:
Click in the text box and press CTRL+V - this will paste the link you copied earlier. Now click the Add button. You'll see the contents of the feed within your browser.
Viewing a feed item.
To view a feed item, just click on it in the list and it'll pop up for you to read. Some feeds display the full content, as mine does:
Other feeds only display an excerpt and you'll have to click the link at the top to read the rest of the entry.
Subscribing to more feeds.
First, bookmark Google Reader. Now, whenever you visit a feed that you like, click on the orange feed icon in the location bar of your browser. Copy the link, add a new subscription in Google Reader, paste the link, and click the Add button.
As you subscribe to more feeds, you'll find the Google Reader home page more useful. Click on the Home link on the left-hand side and you'll see all of the new items across all the feeds you've subscribed to.
This is where the name aggregator comes from. The software grabs all of the new content from all of the feeds you subscribe to, and aggregates that information - as in, it displays it in order, much like an email program does when you get new messages.
How to unsubscribe.
The "Manage subscriptions" link at the bottom of every page allows you to remove subscriptions if you no longer wish to use them.
Just click on the Trash icon next to the feed you wish to unsubscribe from, and click OK to confirm the deletion. You can always subscribe again if you change your mind.
I'm new to this too!
Although I've known about RSS for a long time, I have only just started using Google Reader. I used to subscribe by email but I have unsubscribed from all the sites that I was getting emails from, and they're all in Google Reader now.
For me, Google Reader is a lot better than storing the RSS feeds in my browser, as I use several different computers and I like to be able to access my feeds from all of them.
Hope you found this tutorial useful!
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Tags: rss, google reader, subscriptions
Posted by Ben on January 10, 2008 21:24 / Edited: January 25, 2008 13:28
Comments
Hi Jason, thanks for the comment. That's an excellent tip. What I did with email subscriptions was to star the item in Gmail, so this works for me too. Thanks! :)
That also removes the need to subscribe to individual blog entries so you get notified of new comments. I don't offer this feature on my blog at the moment (it's my own system so I'd have to code it myself). This is a good trade-off though. I was finding it difficult to keep track of all my subscriptions when I used email, and getting notified of new comments doesn't help matters!
Maybe email is deader than I realised. I wrote about the decline of email last October, but that was before I used email subscriptions.
Aye, nice write up yo! :)
I only started to use Google Reader recently too!
(To keep track of the Entrecard drops)
Wanted to do something like this but you beat me to it. :p
Perhaps I will do a simplified version, but I think yours is already pretty simple and straight to the point! ;)
Good tutorial, mate! Cheers! :D
Thanks for the comment, Deimos. :) Feel free to link to it - that saves you writing the same thing all over again!
Here's my Google Reader tip:
Every time you leave a comment on one of the blogs that you've subscribed to, mark that post in Reader by clicking the star (to the left of every entry). Then every few days I select "Starred Items" from the left side menu so I can revisit those posts and continue contributing to any ongoing conversations!