Okay, so this has worked so well for me I thought I’d make a post and see if it would help anyone else out.

My problem: I love ISHTHINK, and I want to stay connected with it – but the posts are pretty infrequent, and I often don’t make it to the page on my own often enough and then I miss thing, what can a guy do?

My solution: Using Google Reader, and Ishthink’s RSS (Really Simple Sindication) capability to get ISHTHINK articles sent to me, as they happen.

RSS has been around, you may have heard about it. Until google reader came out though, I didn’t ever try and use it. Google reader is a very simple interface, put out by google that receives all of your RSS “feeds”. A feed is a subscribing service – like NYTIMES.com, your local newspaper, your favorite blog, or your horoscope service that sends out content in the form of articles and posts. With RSS, your feeds are collected in one place (for me that’s google reader, but there are other RSS applications) for you to read at your convenience. The new posts are displayed in a truncated format and you can pick which ones sound the best to read when you’ve got time.

At first I just put my family’s blogs in the service – that way I don’t miss what’s going on. But then, I kept seeing all of these RSS links on pages that really interested me. At this point, I’m getting at least 50% of my news through the google reader, and all of that is stuff that interests me. Once you add a few blogs, papers or whatever you like to read into google reader, it starts making suggestions for other pages that have similar feeds that you might enjoy: and I have enjoyed those recommended to me.

If one of my feeds is posting too much, or isn’t really what I thought it would be, easy: I just remove it.

So, if you’re looking for a great way to make more connections with stories that WILL interest you, I suggest you try using google reader (for simple ease of use). While you’re at it – why not add ISHTHINK? All you have to do is click on the SYNDICATE button on the lower right hand menu bar on the front page. Choose your reader, and there you go – every time a new post comes up on the front page of ISHTHINK, it will also show up in your reader and you no longer have to worry about missing any of the great ISHTHINK content (as long as you’re checking your reader everyday, that is: which I do, because the more I use it the more I want to use it).

Let me know if you need help – I’d love to. I love it when a new technology meets exactly the need you have but didn’t even know you needed.

Cheers and happy RSS’ing!

Dominic