CML Learn & Play Things 8&9 All about RSS feeds

I've been using Google Reader for awhile now. It was a no brainer to find a way to use RSS feeds once I watched a Common Craft video on the topic and realized how much time it would save me. I follow several news and sports sites and more than a few blogs. To be really specific I have 32 subscriptions to date. They are divided into 8 categories. Being able to read them all in one place has halved the time it takes to keep up.

This exercise did make me clean up my reader and categorize things. I hadn't really taken the time to figure out how "all of it worked," as I can often be more of a play as you go, or play as needed individual. I'm glad I took the extra time. Google Reader has a discover feature that suggests feeds I may be interested in. I checked out a few of them, but haven't found any I'd like to add yet. I did take a look at Technorati just to check it out. It seemed like a lot to sort through. Although, it feels a little strange to have Google Reader suggesting things to me using my current feeds as guidelines I kinda like that it is there to feed my interests.

I have checked out some of the public Bloglines accounts being shared, but beyond that I think I'm going to stick with the one that brung me, at least for the time being. Google Reader also has a sharing feature. My shared items are available here.

One thing I really like about the reader is that I'm able to scroll through, look at headlines and see the first few lines of each item allowing me to decide from that content if I really need or want to read each article or blog.

One thing that I am not liking about the feeds thus far is that many sites, especially newspapers throw all their blogs together with only one feed. While some might want to read every columnist's blog from a certain paper in a certain state up north... that's not me. But I am forced to weed through them all if I want to keep up with the one or two blogs I like to follow. Aargh!

Also, like my fellow staff member I am not liking that RSS feeds are often very small and buried on the page. I think every site should have them laid out like this.

AND - I think every blog should be required to have a feed. That way I can just read it in my Google Reader - a very useful tool indeed.