In the course of my everyday routine, there are a number of web tools that I have come to rely on. Some are for personal use, others are helpful for my work at LifeWay, and several of them have become crucial in how I manage my day/time.

I thought it might be helpful to do a series of blog posts detailing some of my favorites. Maybe you'll find one or two that might be helpful to you as well!

Google Reader is my first spotlight web tool. Reader is one of the tools in Google's veritable tool shed. It is essentially an online RSS reader. What is RSS, exactly? RSS stands for "Real Simple Syndication." Think of it as a virtual newspaper that scours your favorite websites, grabs new stories & updates & delivers them to your screen in one easy-to-use interface.


[Google Reader Home Screen]

I have been using Reader for about a month and a half now. Honestly, I'm not sure how I ever handled keeping up with the various websites that I frequent without it! Even in that short time frame I'd have to place Reader in the "must have" category of tools I use frequently.

As you can see in the screen above, I follow about 15 sites on a daily basis using the tool. Some are Apple/Mac news sites. Many of them are blogs of friends/others that I like to keep up with. I even have several Google News searches that I'm subscribed to that help me in finding the latest news for the weekly Threads email I send out to about 3500 young adults & young adult leaders.

Clicking on one of the subscriptions in the left column brings up the following screen:


[Subscription Category Listing]

Reader allows you to group similar subscriptions together to allow faster reading. In the screen above I have my "Apple" category of subscriptions (which encompasses about 5 Apple news sites). In one quick glance I can see new stories/updates that have been made on any of these sites since the last time I opened Google Reader.

Clicking on a particular news headline brings up the following screen:


[Individual Headline Preview]

Depending on how the RSS feed for the particular site is set-up, you'll either be presented with a short excerpt of post, or the complete post (including images, as in this case). You can either read through it within Google Reader, or you can click the headline again to be taken to that site to read it in its natural environment.

Adding subscriptions is very easy - simply click the "Add subscription" link, cut/paste the URL of the site you want to follow & voila! You're good to go!

Like I said before, Google Reader has become almost an online TiVo - allowing me to browse through exactly what I want to follow on my favorite sites - all without leaving the Reader interface (unless I want to).

Want to learn more or sign-up for a free Google Reader account? Head over to the home page for Google Reader today! Happy surfing!