1 January 2009
Tech Tips: Google Goodies #2 – Google Reader
I hope everyone enjoyed seeing in the new year last night. Out of sympathy for sore heads, this Tech Tips update is deliberately shorter. So, Google Reader, what is it and why should you care.
Google Reader
Google Reader is part of the Google suite of free web applications (part of the ‘web 2.0′ phenomenon) which, in my opinion, should be used by law students everywhere.
Google Reader is esentially just another RSS reader, so to understand what it does you need to know a bit about RSS.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. I’ve linked the wiki explanation so if you’re interested in how it works or what its all about you can get a detailed explanation there. You dont really need to know that much about RSS, so I’ll give you the cheat notes.
The way it works is that you tell your RSS reader that you really enjoy content from a particular website. You do this by ’subscribing’ to the website’s RSS feed. Then, when you log into your reader, the reader has displayed all of that website’s content for you in a neat little list.
That might seem pointless when you’re talking about just one website. But where the RSS stuff really becomes useful is when you subscribe to two, three, ten feeds. All of that information is now in one, central place for you to sort through it.
Why Google Reader
That’s RSS. Simple (really simple?) enough. Now to be fair there are many good RSS readers out there, but I’m suggesting you give Google Reader a go first up.
For one, Google Reader is free and it’s attached to a bunch of excellent other free services as part of the Google Suite. If you have signed up for GMail as part of Google Goodies #1, you will already have a Google account. This means that your RSS feeds are a simple mouseclick away from the other services you will (hopefully) be often using.
Two, like the other Google services it’s available anywhere that you have an internet connection. Some of the other RSS readers will be downloadable programs, which need to be installed onto the machine you’re currently using. Google Reader means that you dont need to bring your laptop or a thumbdrive with you to stay in touch with your feeds, as long as you have internet access they’re there.
Three, because Google Reader is basically a part of GMail, you can share interesting articles and feeds with your other GMail contacts. Since nearly all my friends are smarter and more cultured than I am, this is where I find the majority of the interesting stuff I read.
Interesting Feeds
So that is Google Reader. It may sound kind of lame, but the trick to it is finding the right content to subscribe to. Follow this link for a list of some excellent feeds to get you started. If you find something worth sharing then mention it on our forums and I’ll add it to the list.
Related posts:
- Tech Tips: Google Goodies #3 – Google Docs
- Tech Tips: Google Goodies #1 – GMail
- Tech Tips: Google Profile
- Tech Tips: GMail Labs Stuff
- Tech Tips: Taking Notes #1 – Word
