WHY? Focus on the web updates you really want to digest while skipping or saving others for later makes you more effective.

Now that you are motivated to receive updates from your favorite websites and you know how to get updates all in one place, let’s talk about how to make streamline your online experience even more by using Google Reader well.

Viewing Options

There are a few ways to have your web updates displayed in Google Reader. One option is deciding how the items are to be displayed. One is called “List View” and the other is “Expanded View”. You’ll find the tabs to change the view on the right side of the site.

List View allows you to see the items in one line. It’s like only seeing the subject of an email. Unread items are in bold and are typically unbolded to show you read items. Expanded View allows you to see some or all of the content.

The other option is to decide if you want all of the items from a website listed (read and unread) or if you only want to see what you have not read. You make this choice by clicking on one of the options on the left side of the site.

Organizing Your Updates

If you are only subscribed to a few updates then organizing them may not be of great concern to you. But if you are like me and subscribe to many (over 200 for me!) updates, it will be more effective to get some control over them!

You can add a tag (or folders) each update feed with as many tags as you like. I use several like “friends”, “business”, and “fun”. I have several others I use as well.

One trick I use is to double-tag my favorite updates as “top”. This way when I’m running short on time or I just want to read the “best of the best” as determined by me, I can just click on the “top” tag or the + button beside it to show which ones are updated. When I read one in the “top” tag and it’s also tagged “friend”, for example, that update will be marked as read in both.

You can also drag and drop the entire tagged set of items so it doesn’t have to be in alphabetical order as you can see in my example. This also works for individual feeds as well.

One last bit of customization in how new items are displayed is by choosing to show only the feeds that have an update or show them all even if there are no new updates. I like to have Google Reader only show me what is updated. This keeps the list a lot cleaner.

Save and Share Your Favorites

At the bottom of every update item are several options you can do with that particular update. Let’s look at each

Adding a star will save that particular update in Google Reader. I use this all the time if I want to save an item or come back and read it later. You are able to access all starred items at once using the top-right menu (see below).

Pressing the Share button creates a blog of just those items you choose. People can then visit that site (or subscribe) to see what you are finding interesting.

If you want to send that item to a friend, you can use the email button to do so.

You have the option to keep an item marked as “read” or “unread”.

You can also edit the tags for that item.

In the top-left corner of Google Reader you will find several choices you can make. Though it’s first on the page, I saved it for last because some of these choices make more sense while you are reading your updates.

One interesting link is the “Trends” link that lets you see some basic statistics about what feeds you are reading, who’s updating frequently or infrequently, etc.

And to round out the options, Google Reader will collect your friend’s shared items in one place. To configure how that works, click on the “manage friends” link.

If you’d like to watch a video about how a guy named Robert Scoble can sift through over 600 web updates, check this video out!

You can also learn some new tips (like keyboard shortcuts) and basics from the Google Reader FAQ page.

What experiences have you had using Google Reader more effectively?

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Editor’s Note: This post is the final part of our “RSS Awareness Week” Festivities. It was originally written by Rob Williams for his website 170spoons.com and is copied here with his permission. Thank you very much Rob!

WHY? You know there is a way to get your website updates in one place, you just need that place!

Earlier this week we talked about why it’s not such a bad idea to subscribe to RSS way of life. Now that you’ve tasted the Kool-aid, let’s get into how you can actually do this!

We Need a Reader

Each item of RSS is called a feed. It’s like the websites send out a feed of information but we need something to capture the feed. That device is a feed reader (also sometimes referred to as an aggregator).

Feed readers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Instead of going through all the options, I’m going to show you my favorite – Google Reader. It’s a free website that requires a Google account (if you have gMail then you’re set). So head over to Google Reader (aka: gReader) and sign up and/or in with your Google account.

We Need to Grant Permission

Subscribing — this model for receiving information has been around for a long time. Just like when you subscribe to a magazine, you’re giving them permission to send you the latest information. Now that we have something to read our feeds in, we need to go give some websites permission to send us the latest!

Now, remember last week I told you that the Firefox browser has all sorts of goodies built in? This is one place it pays off. To get ready for some streamlined subscribing, in the Firefox menu click on Tools and then Options. You will then see a window that has an option for Feeds. Click it and change the settings to “Subscribe to the feed using:” and select Google. Press OK.

Now, let’s head over to 170spoons.com (if you’re not already here) because you want to make sure you always get the best tools, tips, and tutorials for technology! Look up a the web address bar and you’ll see at the end of it a little orange icon which means this website has a RSS feed for you.

Editor’s Note: This will also work if you type a http://www.CruTech.org in.

Click the icon and you’ll be taken to a page that has two options. We want the one that says “Add to Google Reader”. Click that blue box to add it.

Once you have clicked that button you should be taken back to your Google Reader with 170spoons.com loaded and ready to be read! Note that the number beside the item (in this case 2) is how many unread items you have for that feed. Your number may vary.

If you want to use a different browser or a different reader, you can still go through the subscribing process. Go to your website and when you get there, look for the RSS button that on most pages looks like this.

Later in the week I’ll give you some tips on how to use Google Reader better and faster. But for now, you should be set up. Go around to different websites that offer updated content and see if they have a RSS button somewhere and load up your reader!

I know many people reading this use different readers than Google. What is your favorite and why?

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Editor’s Note: This post is a part of our “RSS Awareness Week” Festivities. It was originally written by Rob Williams for his website 170spoons.com and is copied here with his permission. Read the rest of this entry »

I need to begin by noting something that I wasn’t aware of when I wrote last week’s Beginning with Firefox post; the Preferences window (called Options in the Windows’ version of FF) is not in the Tools menu, but the Edit menu in non-Windows’ versions. That is where we’ll spend a lot of our time this week.

Before we do that let’s look at the (I believe) universal Tools menu.

Web Search – This simply puts your cursor in the (customizable) search box at the top right of the screen. While we’re looking at it click on the small arrow to the left of the search box now, you’ll see the standard search engines that come pre-installed with Firefox – you can ad more which is something that we’ll cover in the future.

Downloads – Here is the window that pops up when you download a file. It’s a way to keep track of them and even monitor where you’re downloading them to on your machine.

Add-ons – This is one of the beautiful features of Firefox (and really just about any open source program). Add-ons are mini-programs that you can install into your Firefox that can make it capable of performing tasks that in can’t “out of the box”. The Firefox installation that I’m using right now has 25 add-ons running that do everything from notify me when I have a new message in my inbox to blocking ads to spell-checking things that I put in text-boxes online… and more.

If you bring up the box it will have a few options that will allow you to change the Theme (just the look of your FF browser window), and add on items that will allow you to play Flash videos (think YouTube), or other media (think CNN or games). If you click the “Get Extensions” or “Get Themes” it will take you to the page on Firefox where these are available.

Java Console, Error Console, Page Info – Probably not something you want or need to dive into if you’re not designing a website.

Clear Private Data – This will enable you to clear your cookies, browser history, and other data that your browser keeps about your habits. It does it relatively thoroughly, be careful that you don’t delete passwords that you want to keep saved!

Now on to the options…

Read the rest of this entry »