Google Reader: A New Way of Keeping Track of Blogs

Google has produced many popular services, notably its standard search engine, Gmail, and Blogger. However, surprisingly few people know about Google Reader, which helps a reader keep track of all the blogs that he or she is reading. This service is extremely useful because it records which blog posts have and have not been read by the user in an organized, intuitive fashion that will ensure the reader that he or she doesn’t miss that important blog post again.

Blogs are added to Google Reader simply by clicking "add a subscription" and entering a url. From then on, any new unread items of the blog appear in the home screen every day, allowing the user to easily know if the blog has been updated. The blog posts can be read directly in the reader so the viewer never has to navigate to a different page and wait for the page to load. This is especially convenient if there are a large amount of posts to read, as all the posts of the blog appear on one page where the user can simply scroll down to see the next post.

Another useful feature of Google Reader is that certain blog posts can be "starred" for easy access later. This is great if you come across a post with useful tips or important information that you would want to bookmark for later use. Google Reader also allows for offline access, where recent blog posts are stored on a user’s computer offline and are still accessible should the user lose his internet or the blog is removed from the Internet. Google Reader can not only read blogs, but also collect RSS and Atom feeds to display.

One unique feature about Google Reader, however, is that it tracks the status of its usage each month. Charts display numbers such as the amount of posts read, number of posts starred, amount of new posts each month, etc. This information can be useful to judge how much a visitor has been using Google Reader and the percentage of new posts that he or she has actually read. If the blog reader does not read many of the new posts, it may be better to stop following a few blogs so he or she has time to read the posts that matter.

The fact that the Reader is part of Google also provides the advantage that other technologies developed by Google incorporate well into the reader. For example, a user can use the Google search to search within his blog posts or email a post using Gmail with one click. This makes it easy to perform common tasks with blog posts, whether it be sharing, saving, searching, linking, etc.

This revolutionary new service makes it much easier for the average user to keep track and organize their blogs, allowing people to effectively follow larger amounts of blogs at once and keep them up-to-date on the latest news, whether it be an update on an international issue or a simple frustrated outburst by one of his friends. Google Reader has it all covered.