Ok, now that I have vaguely established what a blog is, I would like to tell you the rest of what little I know about blogs, and that is mainly how to read them, and more specifically, how to read them with convenience. In order to do this you need to understand these 2 simple, time saving tips.
1) First things first, you need to subscribe to what is called a Reader. Since I have a gmail account, and subsequently a full Google Account, I use Google Reader. What a reader does is it gathers all of the blogs and articles from sites, authors, and bloggers that you know and love in one simple place. Think of it as a customizable newspaper. Each time a blog, article or site that you have subscribed to updates, you will be updated simultaneously. Instead of browsing through ten or so web pages to find the articles and blogs that you like to read, they are all gathered and saved in one place for you to read at your convenience. With this tool you can also stay up to date, simplify your internet reading, discover new content, recommend articles to friends, share articles, and label articles that you read which relate to certain topics, called a tag. All these tools only make it easier for you to share ideas and articles with your friends and vice a versa. Afterall, "Man's flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge."
(that was for all you Academy guys and gals :)
2) Secondly and finally, If you have spent anytime on the internet in the near past you may have noticed a few small details on certain web articles. The first of which is the orange box with what looks like a white speaker inside it. You can see this in the upper right hand corner of this very blog post. This is called an "RSS feed icon" (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication). Feed icons enable you to subscribe to blogs, news articles from specific sources or authors, bank accounts, and various other items you might want to be updated on. Once you have subscribed to a reader, such as Google Reader, you just click on this icon and the updated blog posts and articles will appear in one easy to read place. Thats it, just click the button and you will be updated everytime your favorite blogger (me) updates his/her blog. Also, towards the bottom of nearly every scholarly article and blog is a link which enables you to save the specific article. This is called sharing or social bookmarking and it is most commonly done through del.icio.us. With del.icio.us and Google Reader you can save, share, and tag almost any article you find for future use.
So, using those two basic and easy steps you should be able to find blogs that you like to read and stay current on them without ever having to waste time surfing through 10 or so different sites to stay informed with your friends and your world.
Go ahead, click the feed button, you'll love it.
RSS Feed