Google Reader

It has come to my attention that many of you are naïve when it comes to the brilliance that is Google Reader. (Ok, many of you don't even have gmail accounts, which I think is rather silly myself, considering how many amazing perks come with a gmail account... but that's for another time.) So... why Google Reader? I'm guessing that since you are reading my blog, you probably read other people's blogs, too. Do you ever get sick of checking 10 blogs every few days, hoping that someone will have posted something? Do you ever hear people talking about the amazing video posted on Friend A's blog, but you don't know what they're talking about because you hadn't seen the update yet? Well, my friends, Google Reader is for you. With Reader, you can subscribe to any website with an RSS feed... not just blogs, either. I also subscribe to Harry Potter websites (go ahead and groan), a comic that all my friends think is the best thing ever, and a cooking site. In fact, just writing this post has inspired me to add lds.org to my Reader. I am currently subscribed to 90 different sites. There is no way I want to look at all of those sites on a regular basis. Instead, I just subscribe to them all in Google Reader. Then, every day or two, I come into Reader and it shows me who has updated. Not even just that, but I can read the post inside Reader. If I want, I can also click on the name of the post and it will take me straight to the actual site.

Because of this happy amazingness, I can now keep up on the lives of people I knew in high school that I haven't talked to in years and years and probably have no idea I read their blog. I can keep tabs on my college friends who have moved to various places all over the glob. I get see cute pictures and read funny stories about my nieces and nephews (when my siblings decide to actually post...). And I never have to worry about if I forgot to read someone's blog. Really... it's a beautiful thing. Here, I'll even give you a screenshot of my Google Reader so that you can see how much fun it is. (Please forgive the smallness and blurriness of it... I'm at work and only had Paint to work with. Chalk up a point for Photoshop.)