April 29: I really enjoy following a variety of blogs, and it occurred to me that some of my readers might like to hear about a nifty tool that allows you to check on the status of your favorite blogs without having to visit each one. “Wouldn’t it be cool,” you might think, “if there was one website I could go to and see if there was anything new to read on my email, favorite blogs, favorite news sources, etc.?” The good news is that there is just such a tool and the even better news it that it’s ultra easy to use and the one I use is very pretty to look at.
iGoogle allows you to create a your own customizable homepage (it takes about 30 seconds to set up).
You can have all sorts of content on the home page. Mine for example (see the image below) shows new emails I’ve received and the top three stories of all the websites I regularly view. So I can see at a glance if any of my siblings or Julie or Karen have written a new post. I also have a spot where I can see if I’ve had any new comments on my website (because I just love reading my comments!). To add new content to my Google homepage, I can either click on the RSS icon in my web browser’s address bar (it’s the orange and white icon) on the right-hand side or type in the URL of the blog.
While I’m sharing info about cool things you can do with this tool, I should mention that Google news alerts allows you to create custom queries for news. So I can set up a Google news search for “Dotzour” to see where Bryan’s dad was last quoted. Or I can create a search for articles about land conservation that are printed in Wisconsin. The results of these searches can be shown on my Google homepage as well. Very handy! And potentially makes me feel much more on top of things than I really am! Just remember that whenever you see the RSS feed icon in the address bar that you can add it to your Google homepage (or other RSS feed aggregator).
I’ll also just say that I love Google’s calendar…it’s what I use to keep myself organized…and Google Documents which allows you to create and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint-type documents. The best part is that you can access them from anywhere – a real help when I was working on things from home, work, and the coffee shop!
OK, I’ve been meaning to write a post about the joys of my Google homepage for quite some time. It’s too fun a tool not to share! Plus, you can make it pretty with all kinds of fun themes. I love that kind of thing!
Enjoy!