One of my favorite things - and it is free!!!

Do you guys use Google Reader??? I am pretty much addicted. I use it on my phone and my pc. Just this week I have told my sister and Megan about it and they are now super fans as well. So I thought I would share the love. If you are already a google reader fan, come back tomorrow (or leave a comment - love those) and I am sure I will find something new to blog about.

So you know when you hit the follow button on the side of someone's blog? (Feel free to hit mine over there to the right.) Well, it not only shows under your profile as a blog that you follow, but it also autopopulates in Google Reader.

First, let's access Google Reader. Just go to Google and at the top of the page click the "more" button and then click "Reader." It will ask you to login, so just use your blogger login and password.

Next, it pulls up this fabulous screen page. You can see my notes better if you click on the image but basically it pulls all of your blogs to one page like an email. On the left column it shows how many unread blog posts I have, which blogs currently have unread posts, and which blogs I have starred to come back and read again.
I always click on the "all items" button and it brings up a scrolling list of my blogs. I can just scroll through and read them all at once without click on each blog that is saved to my favorites.

At the bottom of the screen, you can mark an item as unread, star it for later reading or show other google readers that you like this (kind of like on facebook).

Then you just scroll through to your next post.

Some tips:

1- You can also add blogs that are not blogspot.com blogs (like wordpress) or that don't have a follow button to your Google Reader by hitting the "add a subscription button" at the upper left side of the page. You just copy the blog's url and paste it there. Then those blogs will start showing up in your feed.

2- You can access google reader from your cell phone with the Google app or by going to reader.google.com.

3- The only downside of this is that you cannot comment on blog posts through google reader. (Or at least I have no idea how.) This is my only annoyance with the product. To comment you just have to click on the post name and then it will redirect you to the actual post.

If you aren't already using google reader, I promise it will change your life and save you so much time if you follow multiple blogs. Let me know what you guys think!