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6 Tips To Master Google Reader
Mar 10th
RSS feeds are increasingly being used to deliver and process content. Websites, blogs and even Press Releases from various companies are being offered via RSS feed. Google Reader is one of the many products which helps you receive, organize and read these feeds in one centralized location. It can read any feed format be it RSS or Atom or XML. I have tested this functionality with a variety of content using all formats with excellent results. No easier way to read any and all feeds. This means you do not have to visit different websites to catch up with the latest content – on the contrary, have the content delivered to you. Below I present some tips you can use to make your experience with Google reader more enjoyable and productive.
- Shortcuts help you be more efficient. The most common and useful keyboard shortcuts I use everyday are shown here.
J – go to next item
K – go to previous item
S – star an item for later reading or quickly mark important/favorite
V – jump to the webpage of the feed item
R – refresh the content in the reader
? – for complete list of keyboard shortcuts - Videos can be seen directly inside the feed window. No need to jump to the website or post just to see the video. I have tested playing YouTube and Google videos and they work fine.
- Tag an item to a particular category. This will help you navigate if you have several feeds and want to look up only certain categories. You can also tag important posts ”important” or ”follow-up” to keep track.
- Auto-sort is a unique feature I have seen only in Google Reader. I will let Google explain this one. ”When you’re viewing all items, you can click “View settings” to choose a sorting order. Auto-sort prioritizes subscriptions with fewer items, so your friend who publishes one blog item per month won’t be drowned out by higher-volume sites like the New York Times.” You can also sort the items in other ways such as latest on top or oldest on top. By default Google Reader shows you the latest posts first.
- Sharing your RSS feed items generates a ”Public” page with your shared feeds. Anyone who has the page URL can view it. For more privacy use the email button to, well, email the feed item. You can learn more about sharing your feed here.
- You can take Google Reader offline. This means you can catch up with your RSS feeds away from online distractions. You can casually sit at the park, on a plane or even in a cab with your laptop and access the same RSS feeds. This involves installing Google Gears. Complete instructions can be found here. Once installed you can synchronize your feed and take them with you anywhere.
This post is part of the RSS Series. The first post gave an introduction and overview of RSS and the second post discusses the types of desktop and online RSS readers. Subscribe to TeqEdge blog today so that you don’t miss any updates tomorrow.
Desktop vs Online RSS Reader: Choosing The Right Feed Reader
Mar 7th
RSS readers come in all shapes and forms. There 2 basic differences between the types of RSS readers. You can either use a desktop feed reader which downloads all your feeds to your computer or you can use a web based reader which displays feeds in a browser window. Let’s look at the pros and cons of both types.
Desktop RSS Reader
A desktop RSS reader is an application that you download and install on your computer. There are several options available to choose from. NewsGator, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire are 3 of the popular applications. You can also use your email client for reading feeds. Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Mozilla Thunderbird, for example, allow you to subscribe to feeds. New unread items are downloaded and are displayed similar to emails. One of the benefits of this type of reader is that you don’t have to be online to view the feeds. Once the items are synchronized and downloaded you are free to roam anywhere. The most notable disadvantage is that if you are disconnected from the internet any embedded HTML content or videos will not play. This is a major drawback which will be a show-stopper for the numerous YouTube videos that get embedded into blog posts every day.
Online RSS Reader
Web based RSS readers are the other major type of feed reader. Unlike desktop readers the web based applications automatically refresh content. They also work exactly the same way on all computers regardless of operating system or installed programs. You can be at a business trip or in a cave – as long as you have access to a browser you can catch up with your feeds. The number of web based readers is too many to list in this article. The most prominent and widely used ones are Google Reader, My Yahoo page and BlogLines. Yahoo! Mail also has feed reader feature. But I experienced trouble adding feed to it and I do not recommend it. Among these Google Reader is quite easy to use and is feature rich. Adding feed subscriptions is simple and intuitive. The organization and tagging capabilities make it a must have RSS reader. The next article in the series will highlight the features of the Google Reader.
This post is part of the RSS Series. The previous post gives an introduction and overview of RSS. The next post in the series will give you tips on how to master Google Reader. Subscribe to TeqEdge blog today so that you don’t miss any updates tomorrow.
Contest: Win 1000 Entrecard Credits
Mar 3rd
You heard me right. 1000 Entrecard credits are up for grabs right here at TeqEdge blog. It will be given out to 3 winners – each receiving 333.33 credits. That is enough to advertise on any of the high traffic websites in Entrecard network. Winning is simple – get the most points to win. Read below to see how to score points. The contest will run for the next 2 weeks and I will announce the winner then.
What can you do with 333.33 Entrecard credits?
Entrecard is essentially a blog advertising network. It allows you to promote your site by dropping your card on any participating blog with the Entrecard widget. You can advertise on other blogs when you have gathered sufficient credits in your account. Best of all, its free and it gives you the ability to transfer credits between accounts. This allows blogs to use Entrecard as prizes for contests and charities. Entrecard describes itself as ”a 125×125 pixel image that is used both as an icon and as an advertisement within the site ( digital business card, if you will). A drop is when an existing Entrecard member visits another member’s site. When they do so, they have the opportunity to ‘drop’ their Entrecard onto the site, which places it in the ‘inbox’ of the site owner. The site owner can then see who has been visiting, and both parties also receive a small reward in the form of an Entrecard Credit (ec)”.
Entering The Contest
To be eligible to win your share of the 1000 Entrecard credits, simply enter using any of the methods below and contact me. To increase your chances I recommend following more than one of the below methods.
- Subscribe to TeqEdge blog either in your favorite RSS feed reader or via email. This earns you 5 points.
- Comment on any blog post and email me that you want to enter the contest. This earns you 5 points.
- Write about this contest with a trackback to this post. You can also write about any other post or TeqEdge in general with a trackback to this contest. It can also be positive or negative review of this blog. This earns you 20 points.
- Submit an original article about the latest and greatest in technology. This would be similar to guest posting and you can embed backlink to your site. Please limit your entry to a max of 500 words. This earns you 25 points and link juice. Refer to this post for details.
Best of luck!
Update: RSS subscribe feed links updated. Thanks for the heads up Rajaram.
Free Images You Can Be Proud Of
Feb 29th
Royalty free stock photos mean either of two things – you stole it from someone or some website or it’s really crappy. It takes considerable time to search for decent “public” images that you can proudly use with your blog or website. EveryStockPhoto wants to change that. EveryStockPhoto has a very straightforward business model. In fact they describe themselves in one line – ” We are a search engine for free photos.” Currently indexing more than 2 million images EveryStockPhoto is definitely one of the most comprehensive image search destinations online. Using their service anyone can save hours to look for that perfect picture to go with their article.
The huge database of images gives EveryStockPhoto to have considerable authority over the online imaging community. Instead of searching the top 10 free picture websites user can use one service for all their imaging needs. So what can we expect from them in the future? ”Everystockphoto.com aims to become a leading portal for the stock photography community, and will be adding features, and increasing our index over time.” They already include images from most major providers and have added NASA and Wikimedia to that list. If you search for pictures often, a Firefox add-in will add EveryStockPhoto search engine. Go to their About page and click Tools on the left sidebar.
Via LifeHacker
Microsoft DreamSpark Offers FREE Software To Students
Feb 27th
Microsoft software developments products are often out of reach for most students. Computer science students in colleges and universities across the world are always short on cash and big on ideas. But now Microsoft has released its software development tools to students who can explore their creativity. Under the DreamSpark umbrella Microsoft has opened up access to whole suite of developer and designer tools and platform resources. In its press release Microsoft describes the DreamSpark program as ”Microsoft DreamSpark is available to all students whose studies touch on technology, design, math, science and engineering. Students of today are more technical in their everyday lives than ever — representing both their personal interests and what is expected of them when they arrive in the workplace for the first time.”
What Does DreamSpark Include?
The DreamSpark program releases the following packages and libraries to the student community. If you wish to participate the following suites are available to technology students in universities. Microsoft Developer tools package include Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, XNA Game Studio 2.0 and 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club. Microsoft Designer tools gives you Expression Studio which includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media. Microsoft founder Bill Gates spoke about the DreamSpark program at length in a Stanford speech. The video of the speech can be seen below or MSDN Channel 8.
