Google reader is probably the best RSS reader available today. Here are some tips and practices for power users (hopefully, you) to help you better manage your RSS reading time and leverage it, tweak Google Reader to use first and second level categorization, and optimize you RSS subscription list.
Use folders to prioritize your reading
At a certain point you’ve probably realize that it is just not possible to read all of the new items you get. One possible solution is to use folders to categorize your feeds. Once you categorized all your feeds, you can read prioritize your reading by urgency level.
For example, I use a folder called ‘Immediate‘ where I put feeds that I want to read the moment they publish something new because it is important for me to know about them as soon as possible. These could be work related or new trends, usually things that if no read within day or two (sometimes less), they became irrelevant.
Other folders I use are ‘friends‘, ‘Podcasts‘, ‘Premier Blogs‘, and some more. I also use a ‘must read‘ folder for things that I want to read sometime, but it doesn’t really matter when (such as family blogs or new WordPress plugins).
Two weeks a go I gave a lecture in a social media seminar. Now I’ve translated the presentation I used into English and made it easier to understand without seeing the actual lecture.
The presentation describes 20 social media practices that will help you in your daily life. It includes tools to monitor your web presence, ways to track interesting topics and conversations, methods to find people and to get answers, and more.
It revolves around the following seven categories:
People Database
Keeping in touch and more
Conversation
Search
Collaborating
Monitoring and News
Self monitoring
I’ll be glad to get your feedback and thoughts about it.
Since RSS was introduced, the number of sites people are able to read increased substantially. Try these six methods to find more sites to subscribe to and fill in the reading gap.
1. Stick to good things
Let’s say someone you followed on twitter, or a coworker from work sent a link to a useful article in PDF format. PDF documents on the web are disconnected from the site they are published on. That is, there is no navigation menu to put you in context. When you get this kind of document, remove the end of that document’s URL and visit the site that published it. Usually, you will find more interesting things in there.
For example – I got to a document called “Best Practices for Political Advertising Online” while I was reading a post through my RSS reader. That was its original URL:
in this post you will learn how to save time and get the most out of your RSS subscription list in Google reader. the method presented here include 4 steps and is easy to implement right away. it is based on finding the sources that fit you best and unsubscribing to those that do not. just to get some perspective, take a look at my Google Reader stats. I stay on top of 1,043 subscriptions using that method.
My google reader stats
1. Star worth-reading items
the first thing you should do is to star items you like.
Do it whenever you find something that you would define as worth reading; thing you would like to see more of (Star an item by clicking the star next to it in the reading list or by pressing ‘S’ in the keyboard).
If you’re lost into the clutter of web 2.0 buzz words and definitions, CCH’s recently published survey report might come in handy. The objective of the report is “to gauge the effects that Web 2.0 and user-generated content are having on the way professionals access, absorb, and disseminate information”. It offers short and clear definitions for “Web 2.0″, “Blog”, “Wiki”, “RSS”, “Social Bookmarking”, and “Social Network”. What’s more, it presents paragraph-long scenarios for using each of them in professional settings (starting page 9), which can be useful if you’re looking to make a case for these kind of tools in your organization.
The idea is simple – your RSS reader (hopefully) contains hundreds of your favorite sites. Why not use its search capability before turning to Google or other search alternatives?
The rational
The search option in your RSS reader searches through all your subscription. Put differently, you have a private search engine to search the best sites on the net (why else would you subscribe to them?). Admittedly, it won’t always be the best solution, but I would keep it in mind when searching for something. After all, a recommendation on a software or a site from Lifehacker , MakeUseOf, Mashable or ReadWriteWeb could be better than just finding a site through Google.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a new way to surf the web, which puts the user in the center rather than the sites he surfs. It increases the efficiency of using the internet and multiple the number of sites read and with less time spent. Read this short guide to familiarize yourself with this tool and get started easily.
What is RSS
Put simply, RSS means that a website has the ability to update its readers with new content it publishes. It does so by using a certain code structure that allows a user-side program (called “RSS reader”) to read its content. This new content is the site’s feed.
Why is it good
With RSS, there is no need to look for new content in your favorite websites. Instead, this content comes to you. So now, Instead of going to ten different sites just to find out that half of them have not changed, you only need to open your RSS reader and see the new content from the half that have.
RSS helps coping with today’s information overload by enabling users to scan through hundreds of updates from hundreds of sites in minutes. I, for example, scanned through 7,873 updates in 467 sites just in the past 30 days. It dramatically improves your web reading efficiency by preventing the need to go through different sites, waiting for them to load, watching advertisements, rereading things already read and so on.
Google reader is probably the best RSS reader available today. Here are some tips and practices for power users (hopefully, you) to help you better manage your RSS reading time and leverage it, tweak Google Reader to use first and second level categorization, and optimize you RSS subscription list.
