I have a love/hate relationship with RSS feeds. On one hand, it keeps me on top of my news and gives me something to do while waiting for someone/lying in bed/garnering the strength to wake up in the morning. On the other hand, some feeds are updated so often that it pushes other stories down, and I get frustrated. About a year ago, I tried using Feedly after reading some good reviews, but it still wasn’t enough to hold my attention. Recently, I decided to give it another shot.

First of all, you must sync Feedly with your Google Reader account. Even if you never use Google Reader, you can sign up for one (it’s free) and update all your sources through Feedly. It will two-way sync between Google Reader and itself; that way, you never need to sign in to Reader to organize your sources manually.

It also adds a Feedly icon to the left of your address bar by default. If you’re used to your home icon there, you can move it, of course. I left mine there because I’ve made my homepage my Feedly page anyway.

The first thing you’ll notice about Feedly is the way it organizes your sources. You get these tabs on the left that are like categories in a magazine. I have mine set up where all the feeds that update frequently are in its own category as to not flood the rest of my pages. This is the only way I’ll able be able to read anything good.

Here’s an example of some of my feeds:

There’s really not that much to it. I’ve tried RSS readers in the past, like Sage, but I could never find myself actually using it. The best thing about Feedly is how aesthetically appealing it is. In the “Cover” format, it pulls images from the post and places a smaller version of it in the column with part of the story. The only way to truly experience how awesome feeds can be is by using Feedly. I used it a few times a day. Like with most RSS readers, if you don’t catch the hang of it early on, keep playing with it. This add-on saves a lot of time.

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