Having re-discovered just how valuable Google Reader is, the application has once again become an essential part of my Internet weaponry. If you are a recovering bookmark addict like me, you will undoubtedly appreciate this post.
The Problem
Before time began I bookmarked everything I found somewhat interesting. This habit over time became so unmanageable, that I often found myself scrolling endlessly to find the site that sold the toy with the Kung Fu grip.
Enter Google Toolbar
I needed a solution fast so I researched bookmarking applications and settled upon Google Toolbar. What a lifesaver, now I could simply search my bookmarks and synchronize them across all my computers, voilà.
Google Toolbar is great, those little search boxes you can download are awesome too. I would say 50% of the sites I visit are searched for using this application.
Enter RSS & Google Reader
As time progressed my browsing habits had changed, I started moving away from bookmarking to RSS. You see I didn’t want to jump around from site to site anymore, I wanted one place to go where I could view everything all at once. I dabbled around with iGoogle but found it annoyingly slow, my Fiancee loves it though.
Finally I settled on Google Reader, I must sound like a Google fan-boy. But seriously now I subscribe to almost everything, previously I would only bookmark sites I found interesting or worthy of my attention.
With RSS, it doesn’t really matter; I have literally tons of content to browse through in the morning. If a headline captures my attention I visit that site, if it doesn’t, I move on to the next one.
What tools do you use to manage the web?
