Google Reader makes you smarter!

I have to admit, I'm not the first person to jump for joy over new things. Not that I'm against them, but I have often found it beneficial to look before leaping into new things that may end up costing more then they are worth.

As a result, I was late to the Google scene when it came to turly utilizing some of their applications, but have recently been diving in head first to take advantage of some of the better ones (in my humble opinion) for business, particularly small or technology based businesses.

Thus, we land at Google Reader. My friend and the brain behind the rising social networking and college review website communiversity.com, Michael Sprague, recently informed me that I was behind the times by not capitalizing on this reader's potential.

Within minutes I had quickly added many of my favorite blogs and sites related to web marketing, consulting, technology, SMM, SEO, etc. (as well as a few I hadn't heard of before) to my subscriptions and was off reading in no time. This concept is nothing new, but what I found most enjoyable was how simple it was to get exactly what I wanted and to know that I only had one place to go to get all the latest information from my choice sources.

The main point I'd like to make as a small business owner is the time savings and knowledge base that is at our fingertips. Instead of hunting, googling, asking, requesting, paying or whatever for valuable information related to my industry and field, I was instantly given the information in a format I could digest at my pace, but truly improved my ability to quickly digest information as well.

Here is a screen shot for those unfamiliar with the layout:

From Drop Box