I admit it. I've been using Google Reader for more than a year now.
For those of you who don't know about it, Google Reader is a service that allows you to save the blogs you read onto one page.
It's like a subscription service almost.
When you want to check on your favorite blogs, you go to your Google Reader account, and you'll see a list of all the blogs you've saved.
The neat thing is that you can see which blogs have been updated since you read them last.
See the bold ones? That shows that I haven't read the latest posts.
To read these un-read blog posts, you simply click on the name, and you can read the blog in the same window.
No need to remember the web address for the specific blogs. They are just there!
However, this is what you see:
When in fact, this is what the actual blog post looks like:
Can you see that when you read this post on Google Reader, you don't see the blog design? You only see the content from the post. Not the blog design.
This also means that if the blog has advertisements on it (as mine does, and most others do) the writer of that blog does not gain impressions, and therefore money, on those ads from Google Reader.
So as a blogger, and a blogger who has her own advertisements, and as a blogger who enjoys seeing each person's blog design, which includes additional pages, I have broken up with Google Reader.
I don't want people reading my blog on Google Reader. I want my penny from you viewing that ad! And, I really like my blog design/background. So I'm following the "do unto others" thing, and I will no longer be using Google Reader.
I think the technology and the convenience makes it a great product, but I don't think it supports the creativity of the blogger. So we broke up.
How do you read blogs? Save them all as favorites on your browser? Through Google Reader? An RSS feed? Type in each address every day?
I'm probably the only person in the world that still types in each address every day.
ReplyDeleteI live and die by my google reader. I read follow far too many blogs to try to use any other method. But if I know a friend has ads I will click on that post so I am taken to the blog so the blog owner can get the credit.
ReplyDeleteI only recently got on board with the Google Reader, and it's so convenient, but I need reminders like this because I'm all about giving people that penny when I can :-) I need to comment more - then I'd have to click through to see the blogs!
ReplyDeleteYanno, I don't use this feature, but I believe Google Reader has a "Next" button that you can drag into your browser or something, and then it will just keep taking you to the next unread post in your Reader, but AT the actual URL.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered what all the fuss is about with Google Reader... a friend showed it to me the other day and I hated how it blanked out the beauty of each individual blog! I learned to use my "Top Sites" bookmark (it's a Mac thing) and it shows me when a blog has a new post. True, I'm limited to only having 24 in there, but it still takes me to each individual blog. Then, if I have time, I go through my blog bookmark list of ones that aren't in my Top Sites (this happens about once a week.)
ReplyDelete(And I also really like your blog background!)