For all you lovers of blogs...

Shortly after Nathan and I were married, we got a visit from a vacuum cleaner salesman.  He actually lived right behind us and was studying at the seminary in town.  To make a long story short, we needed a vacuum, he was selling one, we were flush with wedding cash and were quite impressed with his demonstration.

We loved that vacuum.  We told everyone we knew about our new vacuum.  We even took our vacuum with us to our parents' homes at Christmas (no joke) to show them.  At that point, we realized what a good fit we were in the student center ministry, where we could share exciting ministry opportunities with folks who were looking for a place to serve.  Our personalities were/are the kind that if we find something we like, we like to tell others about it. Quite enthusiastically. Don't be mistaken.  We are NOT sales people.  But we might be that testimonial that sales people like to use.

This is not a deep post.  In fact, it may not be up on the blog for very long BUT it does serve a purpose.

I have been an AVID fan of Google Reader.  Over the years between adoption networks, missions connections, professional development sites, friends and family, etc., I could have never managed to stay on top of everyone's news (I can only bookmark so many pages, people).  I've tried to encourage everyone I know who reads blogs to use Google Reader (and I've converted a few) or I suggested at the least that they subscribe to them via e-mail, if possible.  Sadly, Google Reader goes away at the end of the month, so if you're looking for a replacement, read on.  If not, feel free to keep reading because if you read blogs (after all, you are reading ours), you might find this helpful and time saving! 

I've been in denial for several months. My Google Reader page is the first thing I open in the morning after my e-mail.  I read it before I go to bed at night and many times in between, if I have time.  I do so much of my life with Google that I was more than a little annoyed that to continue managing my blog feeds, I would have to learn something new and have yet one more website user id and password to remember.

Right now I'm trying Bloglovin'. 

The Pros:

 There were a few things I liked right away about it.  The interface is a lot more attractive and intuitive than Google Reader.  I have a ways to go in organizing 5+ years of blog feeds (241!), but I was able to import my feeds from Google and start putting them in categories.  ... deleting a lot of inactive blogs, as well as blogs that aren't relevant to me anymore.  I know sorting blogs into categories was something I could have done in Reader, but it wasn't obvious, so I never took the time to do it.

I like that I can see the first image and opening sentences of each blog post to make sure I don't miss anything that might be time sensitive or important.  If I don't want to read the post, I just click "mark as read".  But when I do want to go deeper, it pulls up the blog's page, so you can see it with all the design features of the author's site itself (and not just post content only) like the author's Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds, if they've installed those widgets. There are a variety of reasons why this is nice, but one reason why blog writers might like Bloglovin' is that it registers that visit as a legitimate hit to the page (for statistical purposes).

Finally, I receive an e-mail each morning with a list of new blog posts published by my feeds in the previous 24 hours.  So if I was too busy to visit Bloglovin' the day before, I can see what I missed.  Not a big deal, but nice on days when life is hectic and I'm not in the office.

The Cons:

When we're at the farm house (like now), we get our internet via a mifi connection (i.e. we have a limited amount of data to use in a month, not to mention, it's slower than DSL or cable internet).  To load an entire blog page is S-L-O-W, esp. when most of the time, I just want to read the latest post and move on to the next one (imagine loading a new news site for each story you needed to read).  I've found, though, that if I check Bloglovin' on the iPad, it loads the mobile version, which is essentially a no frills,  'content only' way to read a post, with much, much, less waiting.

When you DO click through to read a post in its entirety, visiting the author's site, it appears in a quasi-Bloglovin' browser, so the URL is disguised, which makes it frustrating if I want to copy and paste the link for any reason.

The preview format which is so attractive also means more clicking to read what I want to read.  Lazy, I know.

If you use Bloglovin' and I've overlooked something you particularly like about it, feel free to comment.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  If you are a Feedly user, let me know your likes/dislikes -- I am trying that next!

Okay -- off to prep for VBS!

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