The web 2.0 does offer some interesting challenges to most of us these days. I for one am constantly feeling that I’m “missing out” on stuff that other people “seem to get”. There is always some news item that is hot on the feeds, or always something going down in one of the many web 2.0 communities that I am a part of. There is just so much stuff out there. I mean .. just look at email, twitter, flickr, my blog, youtube, the Global Geek Website.. Just so many things to keep track of.
So you say .. its time to install that master workstation. That single point of operations that enables me to be my very own ‘Darth Vader’ on his very own ‘Death Star’ . So you set up this awesome workstation with multiple screens and all that jazz only to leave it behind to do stuff like .. go out to work. And being the average geek that one is, one does not only own that ONE major workstation , one of course has SEVERAL computers. Then the whole thing starts. How do we keep track of it all.
Thank the Matrix for RSS feeds, keeping us up to date with all that is going down. A good RSS reader does miracles of keeping track of it all. But when that sucker is installed on your Master Control Station and you are away.. That blows ! One has to be in touch with ones feeds from everywhere (all the time if possible).
So the solution I came up with was Google Reader. Yet another Ball-and Chain to the Google network but I am willing to sacrifice yet another peace of privacy for the better good of convenience. After uploading my OPML feed to the reader, all I had to do was sort out my feeds into different channels and it was time to get the party started. For example : With all my tech-blog feeds in one category I now have a “master feed” to browse through ALL the entries in that category. Dailycupoftech, lifehacker etc .. all a mixed bag.
But became even more interesting when I added the latest feeds from several bittorrent sites and now have a clear overview of what is new on the “dark side” of the planet. Its never been so easy to browse through information without having to surf from site to site or adjust to different layouts and ways of browsing. Its all in one big blue and white list.
Keeping track of what is going down in my web 2.0 world was done by feeding Google reader my RSS feeds of my Flickr Comments, my twitter feed and even the Google and technorati searches of keywords like “knightwise” All tucked into one reader.
But the cream for me is the fact that you can share stories that you like with the world. Google just plunks them down on one page and you can even RE-subscribe to THAT feed. If there is an interesting article you come across and want to “store for future reference” ( Read : I have to download this torrent when I get home”) just Star the Fuckr and it will be stored in your ‘starred items’-list. Once processed you can remove the star and that is that. Much more convenient that bookmarking it. (lets face it : Bookmarking is a thing of the past ..)
So in conclusion ? Google reader ? the ultimate RSS reader ? Probably not. There are plenty of readers out there that are much much better but this baby gives you the option to look at your feeds from anywhere. ( @home, @work etc) + the fact that it sits side by side to your gmail makes it darn easy to forward articles to other people and all that jazz. Definately worth a try .
Links : DOWNLOAD HERE