Google Reader

If you don't use Google Reader, here's why you should start.  Every time I find a blog that I care to follow, I throw it on my Reader and then I don't have to remember the name of the blog or check it when I'm busy, but the Reader will keep track of what I've read, what I haven't, and list it all for me.  The one thing it's missing is the pretty background that bloggers pick for their pages, but it makes me feel a bit more in control with my reading.  It can handle anything with an RSS feed.  (Bloggers out there without an RSS feed button on your blog, I'm not reading your blog because it doesn't show up in my Reader!) 

I keep categories like, friends' blogs, gluten free blogs, climate blogs, teaching blogs, comics, and news.  Some I read daily, some I read over Sunday coffee, some I don't read at all, but it is nice to see it all there so I know I'm not missing out. 

Here's what the expanded view looks like, but you can also do a home view, then just click on what interests you for further reading.  You can see on the left, I have my categories, a few of the blogs in them, and the bold with the number in parenthesis are articles I haven't read.  Some of those climate blogs put out 30 a day due to having a gazillion authors, so I can't keep up. 

 

I'm curious how this will connect to Google+ in the future.  This whole new social network thing makes me a bit nervous because I'd hate for my students to find my blog and I'm afraid I'm going to screw something up once it's all connected, they'll be able to just type in my name, and it will pop up.  I hope I can still be active without worrying about this.  

My question for you is, have any of you ever been able to get journal articles feeding to your reader?  I heard a sound bit about Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) having a reader.  Have any of you used this or connected it to your Google Reader?  I'd love to have a feed of at least abstracts from my favorite journals.