On my right hand panel you can find the clip I added to some of the posts that I decided to share here is the link to the public page just in case Faria's Public Page. Some of them are amusing and a little silly scroll farther down and they won't seem less ridiculous.
I found that there are three ways to add a site on to your reader. The easiest was to go to Discover. I went through a lot of the default bundles and found a lot of weebsites I regularly go to that you can find in my previous post. The other way was to add the URL yourself and lastly to search keywords to find the feeds. I found using the search keyword function was the easiest because sometimes when I would add the URL it couldn't create the RSS feeds on its own. All in all I found a lot of the ones that I look at often and then the occasional new ones that I might just start using.
I have to say I have been hesitant in this technology I understand the simplicity of making things easier instead of going to every single site you have it all in one convenient location. However I am a little stubborn when it comes to technology so I am aprehensive to try the new things when I am so adamant that what I have is perfect. Case in point during this class I tried out Google Chrome which I highly doubted could be useful next to Firefox and here I am posting this blog within Google Chrome. So there are some things I enjoyed about Google Reader and some things I could do without. I suppose if someone had a blog that people checked regularly I can see how it is an easy platform to share things from other sites that you use, but if its simply for you the sharing option is not absolutely necessary. My absolute favourite thing about the reader would have to be the design and how fast it was, but mostly I loved the continuous scrolling and it would keep going. There was no clicking to the next page, which was simply amazing. Sometimes I don't check blogs for a couple of days so I can go when there is a lull and find more than just a few articles when I check so regularly and the one thing that aggravates me is clicking from one page to the next. This was a great option. I also liked this cause it keeps all my blogs intact but if I do not visit them often I can occasionally wihtout going through pages and pages of stuff.
I also could see how this is a very useful technology especially how Google has integrated that you can check this on your phone. I have an unlimited mobile browser on my cell phone and it would be great to be able to have this on the go without going to every single individual site. Additionally for people who have slow internet connections, Google in everything they do have always been the best. When I went to Bangladesh this summer I was very sad that I could not my regular blogs, with such a slow internet connection it would take forever and then of course the power goes out regularly throughout the day. The sole reason I switched to Gmail when I was younger is I saw how fast the email program was in situations like this no matter the circumstance. Google Reader provided me with the same fast and easy service as Gmail, Google, and Chrome. I would have loved to have known about this when I was there so I could have some semblance of the on-goings in the Western world.
The only thing I did not like was certain feeds that I guess weren't supported well but they were found in the Google bundles I did not discover them on my own. The video and visual componennt did not really transcend the same as going to a page. For videos the clip headline would be there but you couldn't click on it, so I really did not see a point in that. And a lot of ones that had photos simply had blank thumbnails and no photos provided and if I wanted to see them I had to go to the original site taht was the only thing I did not care for.
I can see how this technology can be useful on an everyday basis for someone who is busy and doesn't care for going to every single individual site. It is a neat compact way to keep all your things in order and when you care to come and check out the feeds you can do so as you please. This is a very pleasing open source product that Google has provided much like everything else they have and from using it I can clearly see how beneficial it can be and makes blog reading easier. I have a feeling Google Reader may be my new Google Chrome of the month.
