Everyone I know uses Google to search for things online. I do the same thing on most topics. When it comes to communications, marketing or social media, though, I have two other resources I search before going to Google’s main search.
Google Reader
I have two main communications/marketing/social media folders in my Google Reader:
- A-list
- Other
My A-list consists of 40-50 sites that I consider must-reads. I check them daily, and try to keep the unread posts to a minimum.
My other folder includes a couple of hundred other sites that I value and respect, but don’t have time to check daily. There are thousands of unread posts in there, although I do dip in occasionally and read a few. This folder is my search resource.
If I want to search on one of the three topics I mentioned earlier, my first action is to go to Google Reader and plug the search in there. This searches all of my subscriptions, providing me with a highly personalized search engine. Nine times out of ten, I’ll find multiple articles on what I’m looking for on the first page or two of these results.
Del.icio.us
If my Google Reader search fails me, my second stop is del.icio.us. I have three search options there:
- Search my bookmarks
- Search my network’s bookmarks
- Search everyone’s bookmarks
I work my way through these three searches, starting with my own bookmarks and working my way out to everyone’s. With these searches, I try to think of the kinds of tags I would use for the kind of results I’m looking for, and search for them.
With these two resources at hand, I find I rarely have to resort to a regular Google search.
What resources do you use for your searches?
4 Comments
I appreciate your time management tips and search tips. Thanks, Dave!
Thanks for sharing these tips Dave. I have to confess I never search within Google Reader. But given that the feeds I subscribe to are the people and sources I find relevant to my interests, it only makes sense to do this. Thanks to you post, I’ll start doing this.
Are those the only Google Reader folders you have, or just the marketing ones? I have about 15 folders on various subjects relevant to me: social media, technology, government, public policy, media, etc.
Ari: No, I have a bunch of other, more specific folders that I read as necessary but the “a-list” is the main one I look to and the ‘Other’ (which I’ve actually named “Marketing/PR”) is my main search resource.