Thanks for reading my blog. I’ve enjoyed my my new posting schedule (more of an aspiration really). If you haven’t already, I encourage you to subscribe in the sidebar. You can subscribe using an RSS reader, or you can receive the posts in your inbox by putting your email into the box in the blog side bar, or type it into this box here and click subscribe.
But what is RSS?
RSS or Really Simple Syndication enables you to subscribe to the content of many websites or blogs so that you can more easily keep track of them without visiting the sites directly. Basically you can receive the posts of many different blogs in an interface called an RSS reader that feels a lot more like email.
Huh? Well maybe the good folks at Common Craft explain it better than I can. They make a living clarifying Web concepts like RSS in fantastic videos like this one on RSS in plain English.
Nifty. It turns out only about 11% of internet users make use of RSS (LINK) so now you are in the know 
My RSS reader of choice is google reader because I enjoy a lot of the extra features Google has baked in and some of the customizations I have found from various developers and Google itself.
Shortcuts. Shortcuts make the world go round and google reader has a lot of shortcuts many of which are similar to google’s own gmail shortcuts which I also use.
Sharing. One of the most useful features of google reader is the ability to easily share something you enjoyed with everyone connected to you in the reader. You can even include comments that will be included with the post itself when your friends go to see what you’ve shared with them. The feature automatically culls from your list of gmail contacts to determine who is also sharing on the system, though you can customize sharing as well. Even cooler is the fact that you can literally share anything via google reader even things you aren’t subscribed to by using the sharing notes bookmarklet.
Search and sorting. Like most google products, reader is powered by search so I can find articles easily even if I only a few phrases from the content stick out in my memory. You can also and view the reading list in alphabetical order or view only new items. There is also and All Items view that gives you the option to see things in one river of news the way Robert Scoble describes.
So please subscribe to the RSS feed (by RSS reader or email if you prefer), keep sharing your feedback, and if you enjoy something you see here please do share it with a friend.
