I recently asked several of my friends which news aggregators they use.  I was stunned to find out that most of them had no idea what I was talking about.  They go to each individual website that they like and read what seems relevant.  Who has time for that?  We’re all busy, so having easy access to news is essential.  However, we all need different news.  For example, I’m an American MBA marketing and social media intern living in China.  I need to know about what is happening in the USA, as well as in Asia.  I need to keep up with general business and marketing trends, as well as more specific trends in social media and social networking.  I also need a daily dose of laughter to keep me sane.

I’ve found some great websites to give me the updates that I want, but they’re scattered all over the web.  That’s why I’m such a big fan of news aggregators.  About.com provides a list of the top ten aggregators for Windows, but my favorite (and thus, the one I’m going to talk about) is Google Reader.  Mostly it’s my favorite because I like having everything in one place: Google Talk, Gmail, Search, Buzz, Maps, etc., etc.  Plus, I’m a fan of keeping info in the cloud so I can access from any computer with an Internet connection regardless of location or if I’m using a PC or an Apple product.

For those of you who don’t already know, an aggregator basically works by receiving messages (called RSS feeds) from your favorite websites when they are updated.  It then puts the messages in one web page, so that you can access all news relevant to you in one place.  Simple, right?

The greatest thing about aggregators is that they are personalized, so here are my personal favorite subscriptions on Google Reader:

Social Media and Tech News: Mashable, All Facebook, Gizmodo and TechCrunch

Celebrity Gossip: Pop Sugar (Found this one in the Staff Picks)

Humor: The Onion, College Humor (still funny, no matter how old you are)

World News: BBC News

Random interesting things: digg.com: Stories / Popular and Lifehacker

In Google Reader, you can view each article by just the headline or the headline with a brief intro.  There are also several options to “like” or share the articles.

There are a few ways to sort your news as well; my favorite is “sort by magic.”  Although not technically magic (but might as well be), this setting sorts your news based on what you “like” and share.  This means that as time passes, your most interesting and/or relevant news appears at the top of the list.

There are many other features, but I’ll let you explore them on your own for now.  If you have any questions or tips for fellow users, feel free to post them.

Happy surfing!