My New Best Friend - Google Reader

Geez, I haven't put up a post in a while. I think it's because I'm addicted to reading blogs. I love them. I love to read about what real people are doing to their homes, what they're cooking, and what they're creating. It's a great way to get some inspiration and ideas to try in your own space. There are sooo many creative people out there - it's amazing.

Because of my addiction, I have a extremely long list of blogs saved in my favorites folder. Every so often, I'd open up the favorites folder and click through each one and read through the newest post on the blogs. Not very efficient. Then, I discovered Google Reader (insert singing choir here).

I think I first caught on to the purpose of Google Reader when I noticed that the blogs that I was following were listed in the reader and that the new posts showed up there (as well as on the Blogger Dashboard). Then I noticed that some blogs had "subscribe in a reader" buttons, and that when I clicked on those, it brought me to a page where you could choose your reader. I clicked on the Google button, which brought me to another page that asked me whether I wanted to subscribe via Google Reader, or iGoogle. I admit, that confused me for a while, until I learned that you could put a Google Reader gadget on your iGoogle page. So, from then on I clicked that I wanted to subscribe via Google Reader.

I realize that I'm probably a little late to this show. I'm just so happy to have found a way to keep up with the blogs that I had bookmarked as favorites. When a new post is put up on a  blog that you've subscribed to, then it shows up on the reader. No more clicking through my HUGE list of "favorites". Plus, if I'm not using my own computer, I can still access the Google Reader and stay caught up from where ever I am.

Also, if a blog doesn't have a "subscribe by a reader" button, then you can manually add it to the Google Reader page. Very handy. Apparently, you can also categorize the blogs into folders on Google Reader, but I haven't done that just yet. I may have to as the list on my reader continues to grow.

Now I just have to stay caught up with the new posts, and I'll be all set and won't miss anything wonderful from all of you creative people out there!