Posts tagged Google
Tools That I Use: Google Reader
0The one online tool that I use more than any other is Google Reader. It allows me to rapidly make sense of the fire hose of information circulating on the web, keep up with my favorite blogs, perform vanity monitoring on my person and projects, and effortlessly wire my online contributions into more useful formats. I love it and I thought that I might recommend it to you.
The first thing that you need to know is that, at its core, Google Reader, is nothing more than an online RSS Reader application. What is RSS you ask? Let’s check Wikipedia –
“RSS (most commonly expanded as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed’s URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.”
The above description of RSS, refers to RSS Readers. Once upon a time that meant a desktop application. Today, that means Google Reader. Besides being one slick RSS Reader, the fact that it is fully API supported and Internet based means that you completely avoid the challenges of syncing your reading across multiple platforms! You can use Google Reader via any web browser, any mobile Smart Phone, and use any operating system to do it. There are even tons of full applications that use its back office support for their database meaning that you can read items wherever you are and never lose track of what you have and have not read!
Of course, Google Reader, is free. You can use it now. Give it a try. They have an awesome help and support page here. They even offer video lessons to get you started. If you are looking for an RSS feed to try with it, you can subscribe to this blog here. Then just look for the symbol in this post on other sites. You will start to notice them everywhere!
Come back later this week and I will discuss how I use Google Reader and RSS to do all the tasks that I mention in the opening paragraph.
Do you use RSS? How often? Do you use Google Reader or another RSS Reader?Please share your ideas below. Also, if you have recommendations on other tools that you use, please let us know.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 17, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Learn.com
News Commentary: Google’s High Speed Internet Service Provider
0On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Last week, Google announced a pilot program to roll out a 1GBPs internet service to select homes and businesses within the USA. This is an aggressive push to rectify one of the horrible wonders of the Internet Age – The fact that the country that invented The Internet, has some of the slowest commercially available connections to it. The article that I have chosen to feature is from the BBC. Please give it a read here –
BBC News- Google to offer ‘ultra high-speed’ broadband in US
“[Google] plans to build a fibre-optic network offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second) to up to 500,000 homes.
It said it would compete on price with other broadband providers offering much slower speeds.
Google said the trial was about promoting killer apps that would take advantage of fast speeds.”
While this move can be seen as being completely self-serving since Google makes more money the more people use the Internet, I think that there is more here. Google has a corporate history of moving into products that they feel “someone” should be providing. There is a clear corporate culture here that takes initiative in areas that others should be, but are not. Some examples of this behavior are:
- Gmail. Providing Gmail with the idea that it would become the universal email provider.
- Electric Cars. When no one else would fund, use, and push electric cars, Google did.
- Book Scanning. No matter what you think of Google’s scanning of every book in the world project and its copyright implications, you have to admit that someone needed to start doing it.
Google’s famous “Do No Evil” policy is at work here. My opinion, is that I am glad that a corporate citizen is moving us forward in so many Information Age vectors. In many of these focus areas, I honestly wish that others were leading, but since none are, I am thankful that Google is. I know that I would welcome a 1 GBPs Internet connection from any provider!
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 14, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Bay Ring Communications
The End of The Academic and Beginning of the Social Web?
0Ever since the World Wide Web was founded it has been an academic tool for people to find things out that they did not know or share information that they had with others. This week that paradigm got turned on its head. This reversal of trends is the subject of this week’s news commentary.
Once a week, I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Since the Internet Search business was launched, it has always garnered the most traffic. This makes sense. More people are looking for information on the Internet than anything else. Search traffic drives clicks and clicks are the currency of the web.
This trend has been interrupted as reported by this week’s news via Newsweek:
NewsWeek.com- Facebook’s All-Out Assault on Google’s Numbers by Nick Summers
The rise of the social use of the Internet is not news. What is amazing, though, is that in four short years this use is set to eclipse that of searching as the top use of the Internet. This story reporting that Facebook.com’s web traffic has exceeded Google’s for a week is simply startling to me. I am sure that there are many web commentators who will cite this as evidence that the Internet has moved to a new phase – or that it has progressed from work to play, and certainly look at it as a negative trend. I am not sure what – if anything – this foretels, but I do know that all of the advertising revenue tied up in the Internet is essentially directly proportionally distributed according to your traffic. Clicks and links sell ads. If more people are clicking on social media sites, then that is where the ad money will go. Quality and quantity will thus follow and more of the winner – and less of the loser will flourish.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 23, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Facebook