7. “Google Reader like an Inbox for the web”

Google Reader is an online tool which is useful to keep check on your favourite blogs and news sites.

With your Google Reader public page, you can also share your favourite items with your friends, simply by sending them to relevant links. You can also email friends to share information about feeds. You can also maintain your feeds privately.

You can access your Google Reader account from any computer with online access. (Unlike browser feed-readers which are specific to one computer.)

Getting Started

You need to have a Google account (e.g. gmail). Sign up at Google, follow the links to Google Reader or sign up at the link below.

• Then login at: Google Reader with your new subscription.

When you start, you can add feeds from blogs you know personally, or browse the directory or news links from Google. (These are grouped by area of interest.)

• To add your own feeds, open the blog web site in another window, then click to find the feed link (i.e. click on the RSS icon in the address bar).
• Click add subscription in the left hand sidebar and enter the url of the feed for the web site you are interested in following e.g. http://workingtheweb.wordpress.com/feed/
• Once the feed is listed you can rate it, share it (or not) and email it to friends.
• You can also browse Google Reader’s feeds from its directory page: http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-page
• Search for news, subject specific blogs etc.

(N.B. It is also possible to export your feeds from your browser. Click on Settings, then the Import/Export tab and follow directions.)

 

Checking your feeds

When ready to check your feeds, you simply read from the left hand sidebar:

• Click on the feeds in bold (new feeds).
• Clicking in the frame where the feed is displayed, marks the feed as read.
• By clicking on the post title, you can see the whole post. (Some blogs are set to not display the whole post in a feeder until you do this.)
• Clicking on the blog title takes you to the whole blog.

# Exercise

1. Follow the steps above to set up your own Google Reader, or at least follow the tour. Comment on your blog about the usefulness or otherwise of this tool. How does it compare with browser feed-reader tools?

2. On your blog, compare Browser feed readers with Google Reader. Can you see uses for both or is there one you would prefer to use? (N.B. you may later change your mind as you get used to one or the other – just write your first impressions.)

3. Tracking blogs can be time consuming, but feed-readers bring the information to you. Can you see a way to use this with class blogs also?

 # Extra

Are You Making Your Life Easier By Using RSS?, How I Use RSS To Make My Life Easier Two posts about using RSS feeds to keep track from the Edublogger, Sue Waters.

Custom Video: Google Reader in Plain English, http://www.commoncraft.com/reader. Common Craft video explanation of Google Reader (1 min. only)

Review of Google Reader, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2007690,00.asp. from PC Magazine Feb 2008

6. RSS feeds – tracking your blogs

Once you have discovered a few blogs of interest, it is useful to keep track of them. RSS feeds enable this automatically and can alert you to changes on a blog easily.

You can either use tools within your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari), or an online feed-reader, such as Google Reader or Bloglines.

The video below explains RSS in more detail. It also available from the Commoncraft site which explains a lot of other Web 2.0 tools as well:

Set up your browser feed-reader

Follow the instructions below for your particular browser. This will allow you to check feeds from the computer you use to set this up:

Suggestion: add an RSS feed for this blog to alert you to changes

# Internet Explorer

In IE to add RSS feeds follow this procedure:

1.      Tab Tools, Feed discovery, RSS feed (blogname). Then click on Subscribe to this feed or

2.      Click on the RSS icon and Subscribe to this feed.

For both methods, follow the prompts to place the feed in the folder you want (select one you have, set up a new one or accept the default folder)

To view your feeds, click on View, Explorer Bar, Feeds.

Or alternatively, click on the star (Favourites) icon and select Feeds tab.                                                        

New/unread feeds will be in bold.

# Using Firefox

For an RSS tools in Firefox, you need to install Sage from the Mozilla web site http://sage.mozdev.org/

Then access Sage from one of the following:

1.      Tools, Sage or

2.      View, Sidebar, Sage

When Sage is open (and you are at a page you wish to watch), click on the magnifying glass icon (Feed discovery)

Select the feed from the table and Add Feed

(Or, add a feed by simply clicking on the RSS icon in the address bar and following the prompts.)

New/unread feeds will be in bold.

# Using Safari

In Safari, if a page has an RSS feed an icon, , will show in the address bar.

1. Roll over this icon and it will display, Show RSS.
2. Click on this and find in the righthand sidebar Actions.
3. Select Add Bookmark
4. Type in a name (or accept the one provided, then Add
5. To view your RSS feeds, select Bookmarks, click on All RSS feeds, then List.

# Exercise:

1. Set up your browser feeder (whether IE, Firefox or Safari), including http://workingtheweb.wordpress.com as a blog to keep track of. Then have a look at some of the blogs listed in the blogroll of http://laptopnotes.wordpress.com.

2. Another blog to watch is that of Edublogs (the Edublogger) which provides updated information about others using Edublogs and other web tools.

3. There may also be blogs with which you are already connected.

4. Comment on the usefulness of RSS. Remember, this option is based on the computer you use to set it up. (although it is possible to transfer the information between computers and browsers)

# Extra information

RSS in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsUideo – The Common Craft Show is a series of short explanatory videos by Lee and Sachi LeFever.

ABC Home page http://www.abc.net.au/ Begin here with a search for RSS feeds and multiple programs will be shown. Also try EdPod as a search term – this also provides links for podcasts discussed later.

And something to think about – Why I stopped reading blogs (for a while), http://www.commoncraft.com/why-i-stopped-reading-blogs-while Comment by Lee Lefever on blogs and RSS feeds – food for thought.

The next option…

The next step involves setting up an online feed-reader, such as Google Reader or Bloglines. This allows you to see your feeds on any computer with internet access. Post coming soon.