23 Things, Week 5

Since I already have a Google account, I decided to use Google Reader for my RSS feeds. I have previously used RSS feeds, back in the “olden days” when they weren’t nearly so easy to set up. Google Reader is very similar in appearance to other Google products and I expected my learning curve wouldn’t be too steep, but I found it a little confusing relating Andy Wibbels’ “How to Use Google Reader” to my experience. That may have been because Wibbels was using the Firefox browser and the Beta version of Google Reader. With a little exploration, I was able to locate everything I needed to subscribe to a few feeds. The feeds I chose: 23 Things Kansas blog (of course!), blogs of 2 other 23 Things participants, local news source Lawrence Journal World, CNN.com, and The Daily Beast. One thing I appreciate about Google Reader is the “Posts per week” guesstimate that displays when I’m considering adding a new subscription. It gives me an idea of my time cost involved in following a feed. Subscribing to and reading more than a very few news feeds can really eat up your day!