I have been using RSS feeds to keep updated on the blogs which I regularly check. This way, I don’t spend unnecessary time checking them to see if they have new posts, but also keep very up-to-date when the latests blogs have updates. In order to do this, you need to first figure out which RSS feed software you will be using to check the blog feeds. I have a gmail e-mail account, so my computer automatically offered that an an option. iGoogle is actually a feed aggregator, which is can be used to aggregate syndicated web content inlcuding news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs. The idea is that you collect the sites you want it to check for you and you can check for updates in a solitary location. (In this post, you can click in the images I am including to see them larger.)

Though it looks different than the traditional “Google” homepage, it still functions like the regular old search engine, only it displays additional information I decided to include. You will notice that it shows the most recent three blog entries for “Ann’s Blog”, “Seaman Family Adventures”, “To the Ends of the Earth”, “Consanguinity”, and “The Huneycutt Family”. I have also subscribed to the comments for “To the Ends of the Earth”, which you will notice in the middle of the screen. I also chose to include the most recent “YouTube” videos, the weather (which you cannot see here), and the date and time. At the top, you can see two additional “tabs” which are “Art” and “Independant Film”. The tabs you can also choose from a list of standard tabs and they keep you up to date on these topics, though I have to admit I haven’t used my tabs yet. The ‘theme’ at the top can also be chosen from a list of themes, which you do by chosing ‘Select theme’ at the top right of the screen. Tabs can be added at ‘Add stuff’, to the right of the themes.

In order to use iGoogle, you just go to the iGoogle Homepage. From here, you click on the link underneath the search bar which says (Don’t have an iGoogle page? Get started.) Here it will prompt you to select what you want on your iGoogle Homepage. This is where you select things like ‘News’, or the tabs that you want to include. Keep in mind that you can always adjust what your page includes later. After you sign up for this, what will happen is that instead of loading your current internet start page, the iGoogle will replace it.

Now, I’ll explain how you go about adding the blog feeds you want to keep on this page. There are two ways I know of to accomplish this. In iGoogle, the simplest way to add a site feed is by clicking on the link that says ‘Add stuff’. You will find in the left hand column at the bottom a link that says ‘Add feed or gadget’. Click here and it will prompt you for a site to add. You enter in the web address and click ‘Add’. It will take a few seconds and then say “Added”. After this, you can type over what you initially entered and click ‘Add’ again. The nice thing about this is that you can add several at a time this way without having to track down the RSS feed link on the sites.

A second way is to visit the blog you want to add to the feed. My example photo shows Consanguinity’s site and where you will click to add the feed. See the photo below to see what I am talking about.

Between the post and the comments, you will find a small paragraph with the words RSS 2.0 or something along those lines. Click on the link with those words. It will prompt you to decide where you want the RSS feed to load. Once again, my computer automatically offered iGoogle as an option, so I checked that. You will do this for every blog you want to add on the iGoogle site. Some blogs’ are harder to find this link on than others. Another thing you can look for is this image:

which is the RSS feed link as well. Just click and add.

So, that is iGoogle. You can also use other feed readers or aggregators. This includes free software or e-mail client-based readers like Omea Reader, Awasu, or Thunderbird (which require downloads), and also free web-based readers like iGoogle, Bloglines, RSS Bandit, and many more. I used Google’s since I already primarily use their search engine, so it would incorporate that for me. Yahoo also has a feed aggregator build in which you can use.

For a list of aggregators, click HERE. This will show you which feed readers work for which OS platform (like those who use Linux) so you know what is compatible with what is loaded on your computer. In this list, the ‘Web-Based’ readers do not require download and load when you open the internet. If anyone has questions on how this works, just ask and hopefully we can get it figured out. I have found the feed reader to be very useful and a time-saver since I don’t spend extra time checking blogs until they have been updated.