Using iGoogle and Google Reader to streamline your time spent online.

Ok, I know that 95% of people who read this are quite adept at the internet and savvy using a reader or iGoogle. But this is a tutorial for my mom the other 5%. I realized when I inadvertently removed a friend from my blogroll and my mom someone said "I can't read XYZ blog anymore since you took the link off your blog" that there might still be people out there who don't use a reader. Maybe my mom people don't even know they exist.

Let me enlighten you. There is a way to gather all of the blogs that you like to read in one place so that you can read them all at once without navigating tons of blog pages... similar to reading a magazine. I use Google Reader. I also use iGoogle, which puts my Google Reader, Gmail inbox, calendar and other gadgets all on one page. This saves me clicking link after link every morning to read all my fave blogs, email and agenda for the day. The following is my first attempt at a tutorial. It will walk you through the steps to set up an iGoogle page complete with a Google reader.

Go to iGoogle. You should see a page something like this: Click on the 'Get Started' which should bring you here:
Choose your appropriate town, theme or interest and then click the "See your page" button.

You should get something that looks like this:

If you have a Gmail account, take this opportunity to sign in by clicking where I have put the red arrow. This will enable you to have your Gmail viewable every time you open your iGoogle. And then move on to the 'Add Stuff' button where I have the purple arrow.

This is where you will be able to add a Google Reader gadget. Type 'reader' into the search bar here where I have put the red arrow:

Your search will bring this up: Click on the Google Reader where I have put the red arrow.

That will add a Google Reader gadget to your iGoogle homepage. Here is what mine looks like:


It is slightly different than yours since I have used the drag and drop feature to move my Google Reader and Gmail gadgets to the top of my page. If you then click on the 'Google Reader' tab, it will open Google Reader for you, which looks like this:

It will open up with a truncated version of all the articles/posts. If you click on the 'All Items' bold header, it will give you the full posts (if the writer provides full posts in the reader.) Like this: You are now able to just scroll down and read the newest posts from all your favorite blogs in one place, similar to reading a newspaper. If you want to go to the blog, just click on the bold name of the blog in the reader.

But wait. How the heck do I get blogs into my reader in the first place??? Well, when you are reading a blog that you like, look for a symbol like this: Click on it and it will bring up a choice of readers for you to add it to. In this case, you would want to choose the Google Reader. Most Blogger (or Blogspot) blogs have a subscribe button near the very bottom of the blog. Scroll down and you will see this:

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

There is no icon, just the text. Click on the text and it will again bring you to the subscribe option.

There you have it. If anyone does try this, please let me know if I got all the steps right or if I missed anything.