Goodbye Google Reader

Freshman year of college, my friend Kara introduced me to the Google Reader tool. Essentially an RSS Feed, you can add both news sites and blogs to a reader tablet that links to stories and typically provides the first two grafs of the piece. I hopped on board and have been using it to consume news ever since.

I learned that the science to using GoogleReader was only putting news that you will be upset to miss. The more feeds and publications I added, the more there was on my agenda. Then, I was more likely to dismiss all of the news and ignore each publication. I limited it down to following Ad Age, Mashable, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Columbia Missourian daily. I also kept tabs on blogs from my previous internship in Argentina, Romenesko, Mizzou's student newspaper- The Maneater, an Orthodox Christian blog and the personal blogs and websites of all of my best friends.

The best part of the tool was that it delivered all of this into one product. I don't have to bookmark each of my friends' URLs and check it regularly, I get a notification when it's updated. This volume of news did not make my notifications number too high, so I was inclined to read each story and "star" relevant links that I would have bookmarked for the future.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Kathryn emailed me the following screenshot that I saw moments later once I logged on.

Google Reader decided to power down because of a decline in use, claiming they want to focus on a subset of products rather than having a product for everything. I think this was an incredibly poor decision, since readers who used this were very loyal to this feed. Although people mock the fact that consumers still use RSS feeds and don't get all their news from tablets and Twitter, this type of platform shows more than news- but the personal news of bloggers and individuals who might not be present in the social sphere.

So for Google Reader buffs like me, here are some links I have found with alternatives:

• CNET: Five worthy alternatives to Google Reader
• The Old Reader
• Lifehacker: The Best Google Reader Alternative

Google+ Hangouts show success

Lesson of the week: Google+ hangouts are a fun and efficient way to group chat. 

Earlier this week, my roommates and I practiced hosting a Google+ hangout so Laura could prepare for an interview. Amidst the 10 inches of snow in Columbia this afternoon, the Missourian outreach team emailed out a hangout invitation as well for a quick and effective way to hold a team meeting. Seven of us joined and had a productive conversation about how to cover the rest of the snowstorm in the social sphere. To see what has been produced, check out this RebelMouse, Google Map of road reports or Flickr gallery. 

Although Google+ seems to be a fail of a social platform, the hangout tool is incredibly useful. Here's a few reasons why:

• You don't have to purchase Skype credit
• Little downloads are required for your browser
• Nearly everyone has a Google account, making it quick and simple to log on.

Try one out sometime! 

Warning: Google reads your emails

There are few things more embarrassing in the business world than forgetting to attach a document to an email. In Google's effort to take over the world, they are trying to correct human error too.

Check out this notification I got on Gmail yesterday: 

I don't know how long these have been active, because I usually write emails on Apple mail and not on an internet browser. But I'm pretty impressed. The fact that pure scripting and search codes can track the text in your email moments after shocks me. Who knows what's coming next!