(Continued from Part 1)
Now that you have a gmail or other Google account, it is time to get set up with Google Reader.
To use Google Reader, you have several options. When you are browsing online and you come across a site you’re interested in subscribing to, simply click on their subscribe button. It is usually a little orange square, or it might say RSS on it.
Most often if you have Google Reader installed, your computer will recognize that, and you’ll be given the option to view the blog feed on your iGoogle Homepage or Google Reader.
If you have an iGoogle homepage set up already, then it’s time to decide where you want to view the blogs you are interested in. Simply choose Google Reader and all the information will start being aggregated there.
You can also subscribe to a blog or RSS feed by using the subscribe bookmark function. Simply drag the link to your bookmarks bar. You can then click the bookmark to view the content in Google Reader.
You can also manually add subscriptions to your Google Reader by using the “add subscriptions” function. By clicking on the add option while Google Reader is open, you can enter the URL of the blog or website of any content you are interested in, and add it to your list.
You can also browse the preloaded feed bundles to discover new blogs and websites or search by keyword. It will make various suggestions for you to check out to see if they will be of use to you. You can do this every few months or so to see who the new movers and shakers are in the blog world in your area/s of interest.
In case you don’t know how to find the RSS subscribe button, it is easy. Any site with the little orange widget which looks like an echo, several curving lines and a dot in the upper right hand corner of the address bar of your browser is one you can subscribe to and read through your reader of choice. You might occasionally see it on a site in blue as well, but orange is the most common color.
Once you see it in your address bar, ust click on it. If you are not logged in, Google will ask you to do so. It is that easy.
(Continued in Part 3)
