How do you read the internet?

Until recent years, I had no particular method of digesting the internet. There were a couple blogs that I would check on every once in a while to see if there was any new content, and I had 5-10 webcomics that I would visit about daily to check for new episodes.

I found new content mostly by word of mouth, or by specifically searching for something that I thought might exist. How backwards I was!

I've improved my content discovery and digestion methods somewhat since then. My first step was to venture into the world of RSS feeds.

Any web site worth its salt that releases content regularly (on a schedule, or not) has an RSS feed these days. You don't have to worry about what it is, all you need to know is that it tells your RSS reader whenever there's something new for you to look at.

What's an RSS reader? Why, it's simply a handy application that you give RSS feeds to so that it can hold on to them, and let you know when there is something new for you to read. Personally, I use Google Reader.

If you notice yourself visiting any web page to check for new content - trust me, you're doing it wrong. An RSS reader allows you to compile all of the web sites you want to keep up on, so that instead of spending time loading all those web pages you're interested in every day, you can just read up on all the updates that you haven't seen yet.

When it comes to discovering new content, I personally use StumbleUpon - a social networking site without the annoyances that come from interacting with strangers on the internet. You start off by selecting any set of topics that you're interested, and you're ready to Stumble.

Any time you want to see something new, you just click the button inside your browser (it shows up on a toolbar plugin). It takes you to a highly-rated web site that you have not seen on one of the subjects you were interested in. You have the option to indicate whether you do or don't like the site.

I've stumbled on many blogs, webcomics, funny pictures, funny videos, useful applications, and other random web sites that I would never have found without StumbleUpon. If you want to get more out of the internet, I'd reccomend it.