Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Questions about Google Reader

I’m new to all of this blogging stuff.  I’m finally figuring out how to read new posts with Google Reader.  Yay me!  Up until this point, I’ve always requested post updates via e-mail.  But sadly, I didn’t create a new e-mail account for those e-mail updates.  Nooooo…I wasn’t smart enough to do that!  So when I get home for work each day, I sometimes have 50+ e-mail notes from bloggers that have a new post to their blog.  God help me when I leave and go out of town for the weekend and don’t have access to my account for two days.  I can come back and it’s not an exaggeration to say I sometimes have 150 or more e-mails.  So I’m figuring this Google Reader stuff out.  It’s been slow, but it’s happening!
But I’ve got some questions:
1.        Why do I see everything for one bloggers post, but only maybe the first paragraph of another bloggers post?  Is there something I can do so I can see the entire post?
2.       I see a listing of blogs down the left-hand side of Google Reader.  At the top, I see a heading entitled “subscriptions” and I’m thinking the number that appears at the end of that heading is telling me how many new post updates are being displayed (those that I haven't read).  Is that right?
3.       Under the heading “subscription”, I see a list of what I assume is the title of the blogs I follow.    Correct?
4.       Why is it that sometimes I go through all the unread blogs, but there are still numbers displayed after the heading “subscriptions”?  I can look through the listing of posts (all ninety gazillion of them) and I can see numbers at the end of the blog title, and when I click on the blog title, I see posts displayed that I didn’t see when I was scrolling through the new posts.  Huh?  Why is that?
5.       If I read a post that I want to “open” (what other word would I use?) either to read after I’ve gone through all the new post updates, or to enter a contest, or to leave a comment or whatever, is there a way to do that without going back up to the title of the post, right-clicking and then opening it in a new tab?  Surely there is a way to do it easier than what I’m doing.
6.       How do I un-follow a blog I am following?  I’ve been reading blogs for about six years, and my tastes have certainly changed a lot in those six years.   And is there some sort of courtesy you go through to let a blogger know you’ve un-followed them?  I know that a lot of you are concerned about the number of followers you have (I don't know why, but maybe one day I'll understand).  And I know you get concerned when you lose some.   So please educate me.  I want to be a good girl.  At least about this.  Yeah, yeah.  I pick my battles.  I don't always want to be a good girl.  That's no fun!
Is there anything else I need to know about Google Reader that I haven’t already touched upon in this post?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Some blogs have a setting where they choose to display only the first few sentences or paragraphs, and then you have to click over to the blog to read the rest. There's nothing you can do about it.
2. That is correct.
3. Also correct.
4. You can see "all items" or just "new items." Is it possible you are looking at old posts?
5. As far as I know, no.
6. On the left side under Subscriptions, hover over the blog you want to remove. A small arrow appears on the right - click it. Click Unsubscribe, then click OK.

More useful stuff:
You can create folders to sort your subscriptions. I have a Must Reads folder, as well as a Probation, a Food, and one for blogs by my guild members. To create a folder, hover over a blog subscription that you want to put in a folder. Click the arrow on the right, then click New Folder. Type the name of the new folder, then click OK. That blog is in the folder. To add others to the folder, click the arrow and then click the name of the folder.

This tip will help with questions 1, 4 & 5 especially. You can set up a button on your Internet Explorer or Firefox toolbar that will take you to the next blog in your Reader. I have two buttons - one titled Next (Must Reads) and the other titled simply Next. When I click Next (Must Reads) it goes to the next new post in my Must Reads folder. When I click Next it goes to the next new blog in the entire list. This way you can read the post ON THE BLOG, not in Reader, and you don't have to click back into Reader. Here's how:
1. Go to Google Reader. At the very top right corner, next to your email, is a little sprocket or gear icon. Click it then select Reader Settings.
2. Click Goodies.
3. Scroll down until you see the heading "Put Reader in a bookmark."
4. Click and drag the Next button up to your toolbar.
5. If you have folders and want to put a button for a specific folder on your toolbar, click the drop down menu that says "Select a tag..." and choose the folder. Click and drag THAT Next button to your toolbar.

Have fun!

Sarah Craig said...

Deborah, I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help, because I don't use Google Reader to keep up with my blogs. But I would recommend that you go here -

http://www.google.com/support/reader/?hl=en

and check out the video tutorials that are available - they might answer some of your questions!

Beena said...

I know lots of people who like the google reader, but I really don't. I like to go to my "dashboard", and scroll through the new posts, as opposed to scrolling through the whole list of bloggers. I see just the first few lines of all the new posts from different bloggers. If I want to see more than just the first few lines of a blog, I just click on that post and open that blog in a new window.If there's somebody's blog in particular that I can't find a newer post for, but still want to visit, then I'll go to the list on the left, and click on that blog name. The end. I don't like it to be any more complicated than that!

Miss Hillbilly said...

I'll try to answer what I can. The numbers match the question.

1) That is the blogger who does that. It is up to them to set it so that just some or all shows. I guess they figure if it doesn't all show you are forced to click on it and open their page.

2) yes, that is right. How many that are not marked as read shows up in that number

3)Yes, and they are in two groups, the top are the non blogger. You can put ANY webpage into blogger and it will add it to your reader whenever they update, the bottom list are your blogger blogs

4)Are you going through individual ones? This might be why. Like all of the Hillbilly Handiworks ones? Or just going in order? Otherwise I am not sure what you mean. This is just a guess but not sure if it is why.

5) if there is an easier way then you should let me know! I open them as I go. Never after reading them all. If there is one I want to save to do something with later..such as download a pattern...I save it open on a tab. I use google chrome. Extra tabs don't slow it down.

6) I unfollow all of the time. But I don't notify. No one does. You just click follow at the top of their blog and when it says you already follow it will have a button to unfollow. Then in my reader I choose the pull down arrow to remove it from my subscriptions. YOu have to do both. Don't feel bad when you un-follow. Although I do feel bad myself with I un-follow those that have less than say 60. I don't know why, I just do.

AND a little extra hint...when you follow someone new in reader, it will go back 10 posts and pick up. So all of a sudden you have posts from two months ago. Just click on through them to show them as read.

Miss Hillbilly said...

I'll try to answer what I can. The numbers match the question.

1) That is the blogger who does that. It is up to them to set it so that just some or all shows. I guess they figure if it doesn't all show you are forced to click on it and open their page.

2) yes, that is right. How many that are not marked as read shows up in that number

3)Yes, and they are in two groups, the top are the non blogger. You can put ANY webpage into blogger and it will add it to your reader whenever they update, the bottom list are your blogger blogs

4)Are you going through individual ones? This might be why. Like all of the Hillbilly Handiworks ones? Or just going in order? Otherwise I am not sure what you mean. This is just a guess but not sure if it is why.

5) if there is an easier way then you should let me know! I open them as I go. Never after reading them all. If there is one I want to save to do something with later..such as download a pattern...I save it open on a tab. I use google chrome. Extra tabs don't slow it down.

6) I unfollow all of the time. But I don't notify. No one does. You just click follow at the top of their blog and when it says you already follow it will have a button to unfollow. Then in my reader I choose the pull down arrow to remove it from my subscriptions. YOu have to do both. Don't feel bad when you un-follow. Although I do feel bad myself with I un-follow those that have less than say 60. I don't know why, I just do.

AND a little extra hint...when you follow someone new in reader, it will go back 10 posts and pick up. So all of a sudden you have posts from two months ago. Just click on through them to show them as read.

Shay said...

I cant help you with anything to do with google reader because I dont use it, but I wanted to say you and I have some sort of connection ..I'm just thinking a post through in my head about followers ! Great minds!

Holly said...

I would love to help you but I'm an idiot and idiots shouldn't be helpers. I do use Google Reader but I don't do all that subscription stuff. When I follow a blog, it appears on my reader. That's all I know. See? I'm super helpful.

Julie Fukuda said...

As a senior citizen who was born before the days of TV and computers, I found the above answers very useful. It all goes to show that not only can you learn a lot from your blogging friends, but you can learn a lot from other blogger's friends as well.