Call it being a late bloomer, but I have seen the light when it comes reading all the RSS feeds that I do. Ok, you can all start laughing at me now, at least for those of you already in the know. Google Reader? I’ve made the switch over the past week and am quite happy.
I made a post sometime ago about how I was using Vienna for this purpose, and that endorsement still stands. Great open source application, but too tied down to a single computer. Happily, we’ve made an addition to our collection of computers, and that’s on top of Rebecca’s MacBook that she got about two months ago.
Bottom line, I need to have the ability to get to my stream of information from all three locations; my laptop, Rebecca’s laptop, and our iMac.
The interface was something that I was instantly enticed by, and it truly makes for being efficient. Instead of a third party, stand alone application, I can have everything focused in a single browser window, open a string of tabs, and parse my way through pages of text to read. I call that being effective.
Still need a reason to buy into reading RSS feeds? Lee LeFever, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Northern Voice last February, put together this short video to explain RSS quickly and simply. Get educated and then get efficient.
Glad you made the switch John! Although Vienna is still useful to grab a ton of feeds to read when you are offline (on a plane for example).
Plus Google just updated Reader to work better with the Wii!
ps it was cool to meet you and Rebecca in person on Friday@SHDH…kind of surreal since I’ve been reading your feeds since NV. Oh and thanks for getting me hooked on Jericho.
You know, when I’m offline, there is no use for me to read RSS feeds. Plus, it’s nice to be unplugged. In those situations, I’m all about podcasts. 🙂
Great meeting you, too! Had plenty of fun, so we’ll have to meetup again somewhere soon. And have fun with Jericho. It’s addictive!
You’ll probably appreciate Google Reader even more when you find work, I only manage to keep up on my feed reading by checking them out with a cup of coffee during my break (well, I can do it any time, but most people need to limit it to breaks!). It’s not just that you can get to them, but also that they are then marked read for later when your reading from a different computer.
Doh! Figures…you help get me hooked on Jericho and am half way through the first season and then CBS cancels it. I can’t remember if it was on CBS but this happened last year with Surface too. Bummer.
I hear you with the offline = really offline…sometimes it’s good to ‘unplug’.
Crap crap crap crap!
That sucks 🙁