Google Reader & Calendar

In earlier posts I had some problems with links and wondering if I could upload my calendar.

Now I've found out that I can link to my Public Page for my shared feeds, AND I learned that when I make changes to my calendar, it automatically changes in my blog (just like my avatar).

WHEW!

My RSS Reader -- Thing #9

I'm using the Google Reader because most of my "stuff" is Google related. It's nice to have it loaded on my iGoogle page so I can see if I have any items to read when I load my home page. Every thing is on one page and that makes it quick and easy. Love it!

The easiest blog search for me, is the Google reader's browse feature. It's already there on the page and I can use keyword searches for what I'm interested in. I think Technorati was the most difficult, but just because I wasn't paying attention. When I first when out there to look at it, I didn't realize I was looking at "posts" instead of "blogs" and that had me baffled until I looked at the top of the page and figured out where I was.

The Suprglu site for School Library Journal had a lot of good feeds on it and I liked how it was all in one place. I added some of the Edublogs Award Winners because I knew they would be good to watch. One of those was HeyJude which won Best Librarian Blog.

Of all my work-related feeds, my favorite is Unshelved, which showcases a comic strip about libraries. Many of my shared items come from this funny quick feed! (They also have really cool t-shirts and bumper stickers!)

Now that I know what to look for, I've started searching for the RSS feed when I go to some of my favorite websites to see if I can add them to my reader. One example is KnowledgeNews. I was getting their information in my email and that was sometimes a hassle. Now I can take a quick look at what they have and delete whatever doesn't interest me.

This has been the best "thing" I've learned so far on this journey.

Google Calendar

So I decided to "google" my calendar. Now everyone can see how busy I am (not) somedays! :) I put it at the bottom of the page, though, because I didn't know where else to put it! I also had to resize it. My question is, if I make changes, do I have to save it to my blog everytime? Or will it automatically upload the new items?

I'm too tired to try it out right now.....maybe before the end of the week!

Finding Books on Google

Finding Google's different pages isn't hard when you know where to look. When you open the main page of the search engine, there is a list of various choices at the top left of the screen (Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail, more). Choose the more button and you will get a pull-down list that opens a whole new world! (Blog Search, Blogger, Books, Calendar, Documents, Finance, Groups, Labs, Orkut, Patents, Photos, Products, Reader, Scholar). I could spend my entire day on Google!

Speaking of Google.....

Am I the only one who didn't know that Google has a book page where you can search for books and READ them online? Hello! Where has this been? I mean, really! I could have been reading Janet Evanovich instead of working (I mean during lunch)!

Do You Google? - Thing #7

Google, originally uploaded by warrantedarrest.

Google is seriously taking the world by storm! There are so many gadgets and pages to play with, you could spend all day there. I guess that's the idea...why go anywhere else when it's all in one place!?

When I started looking at the different areas we were supposed to explore, I realized I already had iGoogle, but don't use it like I want because of the school filters. Though I liked the calendar option, I already have too many calendars to keep up with and don't think I'll add another one right now. However, I may use it next year as part of my library calendar option. What's frustrating is if I try to use it for school use, my teachers will also have to go through all the steps to remove the school filter and they won't use it because it takes too much of their time.

I've got to get back out there and play with the gadgets some more so I can see what else I might use. Right now, the idea of having to remove blocks every time we want to use it bugs me!