Google Reader for News and Information

One of my most used and useful web sites is Google Reader. Google Reader is a web page customized with news articles just for me.

I choose the topics and Google Reader delivers the articles, blog posts, etc., right to my Google Reader web page the moment they are available. Kind of like an instant newspaper or magazine customized with the topics I want to read. All for FREE.

I still love to read if I can get a large text and with Google Reader I can do that. I read a variety of topics including hard news, sports, NASCAR, teal estate and technology.  When news hits, I get it in Google Reader. Google Reader updates, continuously, throughout the day. I get over 250 articles a day in the topics I am interested. I don't read all of them but I know they are within topics I have an interest.

Google Reader is a news consolidator and called an RSS reader. RSS stands for really simple syndication. It is a technology that allows a program to search the web and gather your specific articles in an amazingly fast and organized way.

I no longer surf the web, as we used to say, looking for articles of interest. I was save Bookmarks and favorites so I could go sites one by one to see what was new.  No more. Google Reader does this for me.

Here are the steps:

1. Create a Google Account
2. Login to your Google Account
3. Choose Reader from the black bar (touch More, then Reader)
4. Sign in
5. Choose Subscribe
6. Search for and subscribe to topics

There is bevy of apps that add their own features and comforts on top of Google Reader. That is, they have a nice exterior while using my Google Reader page to bring it's information. Many of these apps are FREE while some have a modest cost. I use the default Google Reader page in my browser as well as the default Google Reader app on my Android smart phone. I pay for Feeddler RSS Reader for my iPad as it has capability to increase text size for the headlines as well as the article content. Feeddler RSS Reader is FREE and there is a Pro version for $4.99. The Pro version has over 10 additional features. 

Below are screen shots of Google Reader and Feeddler. Notice the large text because of my vision disability.

Google Reader in a Chrome browser

Google Reader for Android

Feeddler RSS Reader for iPad