I'm feeling upset about Google Reader lately. For those of you who don't know, Google Reader is an RSS reader that acts like an email inbox for the various things you read across the internet. You tell Google Reader "I'd like to be sent copies of everything so-and-so website publishes." Google Reader then keeps an eye on the so-and-so website, grabbing a copy of every new article. When I decide to sit down and read Google Reader, I've got a copy of all the new articles around the internet.
The problem with Google Reader is that it send you everything. You get every single article published on a particular website. This can result in about 20 to 30 a day, depending on the source. That's overwhelming. And even worse, I don't typically want to read 20 or 30 articles from the same source. I've really started to burn out reading a few of my favorite websites.
Much worse, a lot of the bigger internet blogs have engineered their feeds to make it difficult to read. Nowadays, they always include ads. Much worse, occasional websites won't let Google Reader copy the whole article. As a result, I've got to actually visit the website to read the article.
So, every day, I've got 100 things waiting for me to read in Google Reader. I've got to manually click through each one. Even if it's just a simple click to indicate that I don't want to read the article, it's still more work than I've been willing to do.
I hate to admit it, but I think I'm done with Google Reader. I think I'm going back to manually surfing websites I'd like to read.
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
A New Year, New Motivation!
Hello!
Well, I've been less than good writing here. For the new year, I've taken a step back from my blogging and Twittering and given it some thought. I realized that there are two walls that have stood in the way of me blogging:
The big one is picture posts. I know pictures are fun, but it's a hassle to take them, transfer them to the computer, load them onto the internet then finally format them on the blog. I had a policy of posting a picture with every post. I think that breaking this habit will make it easier to write a lot more! I'm hoping pictureless posts can be likened to letters home. I can keep everyone updated with what's going on and maybe sprinkle some photographs at my convenience.
Secondly, Twitter really ruined a lot of blog posts I would have normally written. I would "tweet" a tiny little snippet (that you used to be able to see on the right side of this blog), but then I would have no motivation to write about it later. So, for the new year, I'm going to cut Twitter out of the picture. It's probably a good idea, anyway. I don't need to make the personal details of my day to day life public knowledge!
I'm really going to give blogging again the old college try. Check back periodically to see how I do. Wish me luck!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Brian Blogs the Internet, take two.
If you checked out this blog within the first few days of its launch, you'd have noticed the "Brian Blogs the Internet" sidebar where I posted links to websites I enjoyed. When you clicked on a link, it brought you to a separate blog that would link to a website I enjoyed.
That blog was essentially a "link farm," meaning it had no original content of its own. In my humble opinion, link farms are bad for the internet. They are essentially middle men. They operate like a door-to-door salesman, getting in the way.
So here's my dilemma: I do want to share good websites! I read my Google Reader religiously and I want to share my favorites. But if I post links and websites here, it'll clutter up my blog. I assume you, my readers, are interested in me, not other websites. If this blog became 50% links, 50% Brian info, it would no longer be my personal blog.
My solution is to use Google Reader's "share" feature. I can simply choose to share articles I enjoy and Google will automatically create a "Shared Items" blog for me.
You can see this at <http://www.google.com/reader/shared/01179481704014780557>. To simplify things, I've added an updating list on the right side of this blog (under my status updates). It displays the headlines of the last five things I shared, along with a link to "read more" of my shared items.
This way, you can ignore them if you're not interested. But if you're interested in what's going on in the world of technology and the internet, you can see what I recommended. You can even subscribe to the website if you're using an RSS feed reader like Google Reader. I've described this previously.
I'll occasionally post a link roundup with the best of the lot. That way, you'll get a personal recommendation behind good posts.
If you've got a better idea on how to handle this kind of thing, let me know in the comments. If you've started using Google Reader because of my post about it, let me know your shared items page! To the comments! (this means you, Nicole)
P.S.: Alicia's got a shared page, too. She shares a ton of items.
That blog was essentially a "link farm," meaning it had no original content of its own. In my humble opinion, link farms are bad for the internet. They are essentially middle men. They operate like a door-to-door salesman, getting in the way.
So here's my dilemma: I do want to share good websites! I read my Google Reader religiously and I want to share my favorites. But if I post links and websites here, it'll clutter up my blog. I assume you, my readers, are interested in me, not other websites. If this blog became 50% links, 50% Brian info, it would no longer be my personal blog.
My solution is to use Google Reader's "share" feature. I can simply choose to share articles I enjoy and Google will automatically create a "Shared Items" blog for me.
You can see this at <http://www.google.com/reader/shared/01179481704014780557>. To simplify things, I've added an updating list on the right side of this blog (under my status updates). It displays the headlines of the last five things I shared, along with a link to "read more" of my shared items.
This way, you can ignore them if you're not interested. But if you're interested in what's going on in the world of technology and the internet, you can see what I recommended. You can even subscribe to the website if you're using an RSS feed reader like Google Reader. I've described this previously.
I'll occasionally post a link roundup with the best of the lot. That way, you'll get a personal recommendation behind good posts.
If you've got a better idea on how to handle this kind of thing, let me know in the comments. If you've started using Google Reader because of my post about it, let me know your shared items page! To the comments! (this means you, Nicole)
P.S.: Alicia's got a shared page, too. She shares a ton of items.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Status Updates on the Right
Perhaps you've noticed my status update on the right side of this blog. That is courtesy of Twitter, a big name on the internet as of late. It is entirely centered around status updates a la Facebook. Each update is called a "tweet," and you can follow people who are texting their "tweets" via cell phone.
I haven't really gotten into the Twitter community. Apparently, it is all the rage in the blogosphere (world of blogs where everyone reads everyone else). But it makes it easy to let you know what I'm doing. It's much easier to write a tweet (160 letter maximum), so you'll see that updates much more often. And if you'd like to twitter back and forth, I'd love to follow your tweets. Comment me up!
I haven't really gotten into the Twitter community. Apparently, it is all the rage in the blogosphere (world of blogs where everyone reads everyone else). But it makes it easy to let you know what I'm doing. It's much easier to write a tweet (160 letter maximum), so you'll see that updates much more often. And if you'd like to twitter back and forth, I'd love to follow your tweets. Comment me up!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Okay, so maybe you can never trust me on this blog when it comes to my posting frequency. I'm sorry! But you got a really long one! With pictures!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Update
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking this guy. I've had a busy week (or two), but I've got several blog posts lined up for the upcoming week. Check back every day for a new one!
To make up for the lack of updates, I've got two more coming down the pipe today.
To make up for the lack of updates, I've got two more coming down the pipe today.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Morning Newspaper
When the internet was new, one common thought was that it would replace the standard newspaper. That turned out not to be the case, as it is very nice to have something to hold and read away from the computer. Plus, reading websites like the New York Times wasn't very pleasant.
But around 2001, the internet heralded a new journalistic phenomenon, blogging. It changed the news front by making regular publishing on any topic (and at any frequency) easy. The problem (in my opinion) is that checking twenty different websites was simply a burden.
One technology that I didn't pay attention to was RSS feeds. I was familiar that blogs and other websites used these feeds to publish. Basically, a feed is a very simple website that computer programs called "Readers" know how to read. This enables you to have a program that will go to twenty different websites for you and aggregate them in one place. I think I had tried two or three previously, maybe around 2006, but I didn't like what I saw.
Earlier this year, Google released their own web based Reader, Google Reader (reader.google.com). Instead of a program that checks RSS feeds whenever you ask it to, Google Reader checks them constantly, 24/7.
Google Reader has become my morning paper. Along with my email, I check Google Reader every single morning without question. I love it because it is so customizable. All you need to do is sign up for an account and click on the RSS feed button on various websites. The button looks like this:
Optional, but very helpful, is downloading the Google Toolbar. Then, clicking on this button in your browser will automatically ask you if you'd like to add it to Google Reader. Then, whenever you go to reader.google.com, you'll be able to read any new posts.
The real advantage is that you no longer have to remember what websites you'd like to visit, and you never visit websites that haven't updated. You can try out websites for just a few days to see if you'd like them, and you can scan the headlines of websites that publish a lot, just like a real newspaper.
I love it. It saves me time when I am surfing the internet, and I never have to repeatedly check a blog that only posts once a week or so. It's gotten me to read websites I might normally find too boring, because I can simply scan the headlines.
Plus, there are several blogs that are good fun. One called Photoshop Disasters has a single picture every day where it is obvious that they were photoshoped (digitally altered). Another funny website I might not check if not for Google Reader is Gullible.info, which posts five or so fake facts every other day. I usually laugh about how believable these "facts" are.
But you can put a sampling of newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc. Here's a list of my favorite websites:
http://consumerist.com/ - The Consumerist is made up of stories of horrible customer service, and what we can do to avoid them. They firmly advocate making sure you get what companies promise, even if that means emailing the executives of the company.
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ - Ikea Hacker has one article every day that shows someone using Ikea products in ways they were not intended, usually to fix some problem or need.
http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ - Passive-Aggressive Notes features a passive aggressive note every day, usually directed at a roomate or some neighbor. Lots of fun.
http://gothamist.com/ - The Gothamist is my daily news for New York.
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars - Ars Technica doesn't post as much as other technology blogs, but they go into depth in their stories. I usually just browse the headlines, but I read at least one full article a day.
http://www.boingboing.net/ - BoingBoing is probably the biggest blog on the internet. They post on a ton of different topics, from copyright policy to Disney World. In terms of internet celebrities, these bloggers are the biggest.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - The Google Blog is the official blog of Google. It is usually how I learn about new Google Products.
But around 2001, the internet heralded a new journalistic phenomenon, blogging. It changed the news front by making regular publishing on any topic (and at any frequency) easy. The problem (in my opinion) is that checking twenty different websites was simply a burden.
One technology that I didn't pay attention to was RSS feeds. I was familiar that blogs and other websites used these feeds to publish. Basically, a feed is a very simple website that computer programs called "Readers" know how to read. This enables you to have a program that will go to twenty different websites for you and aggregate them in one place. I think I had tried two or three previously, maybe around 2006, but I didn't like what I saw.
Earlier this year, Google released their own web based Reader, Google Reader (reader.google.com). Instead of a program that checks RSS feeds whenever you ask it to, Google Reader checks them constantly, 24/7.
Google Reader has become my morning paper. Along with my email, I check Google Reader every single morning without question. I love it because it is so customizable. All you need to do is sign up for an account and click on the RSS feed button on various websites. The button looks like this:
Optional, but very helpful, is downloading the Google Toolbar. Then, clicking on this button in your browser will automatically ask you if you'd like to add it to Google Reader. Then, whenever you go to reader.google.com, you'll be able to read any new posts.
The real advantage is that you no longer have to remember what websites you'd like to visit, and you never visit websites that haven't updated. You can try out websites for just a few days to see if you'd like them, and you can scan the headlines of websites that publish a lot, just like a real newspaper.
I love it. It saves me time when I am surfing the internet, and I never have to repeatedly check a blog that only posts once a week or so. It's gotten me to read websites I might normally find too boring, because I can simply scan the headlines.
Plus, there are several blogs that are good fun. One called Photoshop Disasters has a single picture every day where it is obvious that they were photoshoped (digitally altered). Another funny website I might not check if not for Google Reader is Gullible.info, which posts five or so fake facts every other day. I usually laugh about how believable these "facts" are.
But you can put a sampling of newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc. Here's a list of my favorite websites:
http://consumerist.com/ - The Consumerist is made up of stories of horrible customer service, and what we can do to avoid them. They firmly advocate making sure you get what companies promise, even if that means emailing the executives of the company.
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ - Ikea Hacker has one article every day that shows someone using Ikea products in ways they were not intended, usually to fix some problem or need.
http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ - Passive-Aggressive Notes features a passive aggressive note every day, usually directed at a roomate or some neighbor. Lots of fun.
http://gothamist.com/ - The Gothamist is my daily news for New York.
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars - Ars Technica doesn't post as much as other technology blogs, but they go into depth in their stories. I usually just browse the headlines, but I read at least one full article a day.
http://www.boingboing.net/ - BoingBoing is probably the biggest blog on the internet. They post on a ton of different topics, from copyright policy to Disney World. In terms of internet celebrities, these bloggers are the biggest.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - The Google Blog is the official blog of Google. It is usually how I learn about new Google Products.
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