Use Google Reader To Find Today’s Time-Sensitive Travel Deals

We’ve been mentioning the usefulness of RSS readers. I use Google Reader and Rob uses Bloglines. Each works just fine.

The point is that if you want to find and take advantage of all of today’s fleeting travel deals, we suggest you set up a reader, and I’ll use Google Reader as an example.

Why use an RSS reader?

The benefit of using the reader, among other things, is that any new information published on the sites you subscribe to, will flow (almost) immediately to your reader page. You will only have to go to one place to see all content. Also, by using the reader frequently, and taking advantage of shortcuts offered, you can get through content in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take by visiting sites. I’m currently subscribed to about 250 sites, so there just wouldn’t be enough hours in a day to visit them all.

Here’s how it works:

1. Set up Google Reader. If you already use GMail, that account login will be all that you need. Otherwise you’ll need to set up a free account.

2. When you see one of the various RSS subscribe buttons (such as those below) on any site, click first to subscribe in Google, then choose Google Reader (instead of iGoogle) to subscribe to that site’s “feed.” Alternatively, in Google Reader you can click “Add Subscription” and type in the URL of the site you wish to subscribe to (as long as it provides a feed).

3. Consider how to organize your feeds. Many people prefer categories, such as Hawaii, Europe, Asia, or car, hotel, airline. I think, however, you might be better served by just setting up categories related to importance, such as must read, try to read, and read only if you get bored.

4. There are a couple of nice features I use frequently:

• Add star. This let’s you save the feed and come back and see it again later. Remember that if you don’t star a feed’s content, once you read it, that content is gone.
• Share (and share with note). This feature let you send something you find interesting to anyone, and annotate it if you wish. Here’s the how to.

5. Remember to check your feeds frequently. I do that by making reader the place that I not only get my travel information, but also where I get all news, weather, and other topics of interest.

6. Keep your feeds current. Remember to visit “manage subscriptions” to keep the feeds you really like and eliminate those that are not longer of use. You can also unsubscribe using “view settings.”

Are you using a feed reader, and if so, how does it work for you?