Use an RSS Reader: It’s easier than swinging by daily

Posted on 26 September 2007 by Peter Stinson | Comments

I know more than a handful of loyal readers swing by An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog on a regular basis, including several from the Second Deck. If you’re a regular lurker (er, reader), I encourage you to consider using a “reader” and subscribing to a feed. You’ll find it pretty easy, and you can get not only the UCGB delivered, but other feeds as well.

I recommend either Bloglines or Google Reader; both are so easy that even flag officers can master it in just a matter of minutes. (Er, did I say that outloud?) Both of these tools are web-based and will allow you to “subscribe” to a “feed.” It’s sort of like the message board but for the Internet. Once you’ve settled on your reader, just start subscribing to the feeds you want to track. The feed for this blog is here. For straight news about the Coast Guard, I recommend the unofficial Coast Guard News; that feed is here. You’ll find a few other blogs listed in the column to the right on this blog, under the heading Bloggers from the Hooligan Navy. For my del.icio.us feeds marked Coast Guard, try this feed.

I think you’ll find this a bit easier than relying on Google Alerts or other catch-as-catch methods (which are useful for catching sites you might not know about). Once you’ve id’d sites to watch, the reader is the way to go.

And, lastly, I encourage you to comment. Some of you are in the know; when I’m off-base, please embrace the Web 2.0 and don’t just lurk. Readers are great, but the power of Web 2.0 is the ability to create a conversation to enhance the pool of knowledge.

And may you have an excellent Coast Guard day today, and every day.