Who Uses Google Reader?

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I'm on Blogger, so I just use my Dashboard to check for blog updates, but I know a Wordpress blogger who keeps up with all the blogs she follows using Google Reader.

 

I was wondering if anyone else on Blogger prefers Google Reader, and if so, what are the advantages of reading blogs that way.

 

Thanks!

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I find your observation interesting, Christine, because my own blog posts apparently become more illegible when read on Google Reader. Could you give an example of what you mean? Thanks!

[Lesa]

So are you using GR more than the dashboard now?    

 

 

 

 

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

Actually, I'm sticking to my "old school" favourite: my sidebar. ;-)

 

The blogs I link on my sidebar are the ones I visit on a regular basis. I will occasionally check out blog updates I see on my Dashboard, if they look catchy enough--and if I find that I visit often enough and really like them, then they go into the sidebar, too. (LOL!) I will go on Google Reader after I post something, just to check how it looks--but since I've put so much into my blog's design and format, I hope that my followers who use Google Reader also visit my blog and see it as I meant it to look.

[Lindsay]

I love Google Reader, and almost never use the Dashboard to link to posts. I think I was using reader before the Dashboard had that function, and the Dashboard doesn't load the whole post, or keep track of what you've already read.

 

Reader loads all my "Friend Connect" blogs, as well as any other sites I've added. I can use keyboard shortcuts to jump quickly through the articles, and I can share articles with friends who also use Reader, along with comments to them about the content. This is a great way to have conversations with far-flung friends about the news. (Yes, it's like Facebook in that way, but I find the Reader interface more conducive to long comment threads.) I do have to click through to leave a comment on a blog site, but I follow so many feeds that I only click through when I really want to. I can "Mark as Unread" if I want to remember to come back to a post.

 

So, why I use it: it's one single website to load, where I can see whether there are updates on: book blogs I follow, science blogs I follow, webcomics I follow, articles in the NYTimes Theater section, world news headlines, publishing news from several sites, some job search alerts, service alerts for my web hosting, etc., etc.... 

 

About fonts and formatting: honestly, unless the content has been super compelling in the past, if the formatting makes it hard to read on Reader, I'm not going to click through. I'll just click to the next article, and eventually drop the blog off my list. It's just too time consuming to load every website I follow. If you want to make people click through, put a jump break in your post after the first bit. Beware, though, some people are like me, and will skip the article rather than click through.

 

Lindsay

The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf