Passion and Google Reader Collide

I'm passionate about a lot of things in life, such as family and friends, to name a few. Another thing I'm passionate about is Google Reader. I'm serious. I don't know how people live without it.

I was shocked when my mom and my friend LeDawn (check her out, she's awesome) told me they didn't know what the heck Google Reader even was. WHAT!? So, then I did a little poll amongst my friends and found out that lots of people have no clue what I'm talking about when I say stuff like "So then I checked my Google Reader..." My mind was boggled people. Bog-gled.

Now I feel like it's my duty to let you, my loyal friends and readers, in on the greatest thing known to (wo)man.

So, fasten your seat belts and let's get going.

First, what IS Google Reader, anyway? Google Reader is the easiest way to read blogs, without having to remember pesky URLs. You just simply input the URL once (yes! Only ONCE!) and it'll show you every single update on that blog. Swoon.

So, how do you get  Google Reader? Simple! Just go to www.google.com/reader. You'll need a Google account to continue, but seriously don't sweat it. It literally takes two minutes to set up. Once you have an account, you can log in.

When you log in, the page will look like this:

Completely empty.

Now's the fun part. Click on add a subscription to well...Add a subscription (the blog URL).

After you add your subscription, it should look like this:

Keep on adding subscriptions until your heart feels content. Here's my real Google Reader (the one above was just for example). This is what it looks like when I first log in.

Oh look! 26 posts were made (by different bloggers) since last time I logged in. If you want to see ALL of those, instead of just the most recent on the home page, you click on all items.

It looks like Mer in Cashmere updated a ton, but she just moved to a new blog and imported all her old stuff... No worries! Definitely go check her out, though. She's awesome.

So awesome, in fact, that I'm going to use part of her post to show you how awesome it is to click a post title!

Look how great that post looks. No ads, no annoying background, no music...Just clean and beautiful (though, her site is always clean, but you get the picture).

Ready to move to the next post? Awesome, just scroll down and click on the next title.

So, there you have it. A mini how to on using Google Reader.

I must warn you, though...Google Reader IS addicting and you probably WILL double (or triple) your blog reading time because it's so addicting to add new blogs, and so easy to remember those blogs you always seem to forget to write down (and kick yourself later for)

I must also warn you that sometimes there is heartache regarding Google Reader. Like, when this message pops up.

It's the worst.

What are you opinions of Google Reader? Love it? Hate it? Use it? Had no idea what it was? Let me know!

** These are my real, true opinions. I wasn't asked to write this post.

Edit: I will never use the word "awesome' again. Sorry about that, I got a little excited.