Have you ever wondered how some folks manage to keep on top of so much current news and so many blogs? Google Reader is a handy tool that’s a real time saver, and probably the way they do it. As a full-time MBA student in the one-year program, with nearly 30 hours of class time each week, it’s a welcome time saver.
Think of Google Reader as a magazine rack. Whenever you discover a blog you like, you can subscribe to that blog using a technology called RSS (To learn more about Really Simple Syndication, visit whatisrss.com) On our blog, you can find the link to subscribe at the very bottom of this page. Once you become a subscriber, Google Reader will automatically check each of your blogs to see whether there’s been an update. If there’s been a new blog post, it will list it for you – no need to visit the blog site itself. Instead of visiting twenty or more blogs individually, you can get all the latest content with one click. Many companies offer a blog (or page with RSS link) that shows news or info about the company that’s not available anywhere else.
Another great web tool called Page2Rss takes this concept even further. With this utility, you can monitor any web page – not just blogs – using Google Reader. You’ll be the very first to know when a web page you’re interested in adds new text. Imagine checking a company’s “Current Jobs Available” page every day! With Page2Rss and Google Reader, that’s effectively what you’re doing.
Which websites or tools do you find useful?