How this Farmer Uses Google News

As a small business owner, as a voting citizen, as a husband and father, as a farmer, as a person with a curious mind, and as a contributing member of society (I could go on and on), I feel I have some level of responsibility to attempt to be educated and informed on important issues that impact my everyday life and the people around me.  But how can anyone truly be informed on all important issues?  The Internet can provide an incredible volume of information.  But what information is important?  What sources of information are accurate and reliable?  How can someone possibly manage all that information without going absolutely crazy?  Well, I don't know that it really is possible, but I do know of a couple tools that might help a little!  In this BLOG post, I want to share just one Internet based tool that I use to help me keep my sanity.  I'm not necessarily a Google fanboi, but I do like some of their products.  I like Gmail.  I like YouTube.  I like Blogger.  And, I like Google News.  Today's post is about Google News -- what it can do and some tips in how to use it.

When Michelle and I decided to start a gardening & greenhouse business, I felt completely overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge.  Some of the topics I knew I needed to study-up on included: USDA Organic Certification, current events involving the EPA, anything to do with Monsanto, news about the South Dakota Legislature, Permaculture Design Courses, anything about Honey Bees, and any news about Joel Salatin.  Regardless of starting a business, there are some topics that I like to keep up with, such as: local news about Sturgis, any news about specific politicians, and anything that pops-up on the internet with my last name "Grosek" or our business name of "Bear Butte Gardens".  I could sit at the computer every day and execute a series of Google searches... and try to sort out what is new and what is old, and try to sort out where the information came from... Or, I could let Google news do it for me.   :o)

What is Google News?

This description is from the "About Google News" page:

Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader's personalized interests. 

Traditionally, news readers first pick a publication and then look for headlines that interest them. We do things a little differently, with the goal of offering our readers more personalized options and a wider variety of perspectives from which to choose. On Google News we offer links to several articles on every story, so you can first decide what subject interests you and then select which publishers’ accounts of each story you’d like to read. Click on the headline that interests you and you'll go directly to the site which published that story. 

Our articles are selected and ranked by computers that evaluate, among other things, how often and on what sites a story appears online. We also rank based on certain characteristics of news content such as freshness, location, relevance and diversity. As a result, stories are sorted without regard to political viewpoint or ideology and you can choose from a wide variety of perspectives on any given story.

How to get started using Google News:

Step 1

First of all, you will need a Google account.  Creating a Google account is easy and free.  If you don't already have a Google account, click here to create one.

Step 2
Sign in to Google with your Google account by going to www.Google.com, and clicking on the "Sign in" button in the upper right.

Step 3
Now that you are signed-in, you can click on the Google "Apps" icon in the upper right.  This will pop-up the Google Apps menu.  From this menu, you can navigate to a variety of Google applications.  The application we want is "News".

Step 4
The first time you go to Google News, you will see current news stories based on the default categories that Google recommends.  This is kinda interesting already, but the real power of Google News is in personalizing the news stories to include topics that you are interested in.  To personalize YOUR news topics, click on the icon of a gear in the upper right.

Step 5
This opens the "Personalize Google News" panel.  From this panel, you can enter news topics that you are interested in, and remove any topics you are not interested in.  This is what my "Personalize Google News" panel looks like:

To add topics, find the text input box labeled "Add any news topic" near the bottom, and then click on the "+" button to the right.  What you enter here functions very similar to what you might enter when executing a Google Internet Search -- except that the Google News application will remember your entries.  From my example above, you can see what search terms I used.  The search convention is similar to a regular Google Internet search in that you can use quotes to search on multiple-word phrases, etc.

To remove topics, hover over the term until the trash can icon appears, and then trash it!

You can also customize the "frequency" of how news topics appear by using the slider control.  This can help cut down on some of the static.  Cool huh?

If you need to create a very customized topic, then click on the "Advanced" link.

In addition to all that, you can "Adjust Sources" of your personalized news topics.  From here, you can increase or decrease the importance of specific news "sources".  For example, I don't like Fox News, so I decreased that one.  I also entered some news sources (e.g. Mead County Times Tribune) that Google didn't have by default.

When you are done with your personalizations, be sure to save your preferences by clicking on the "Save" button.

Also, remember that you can continue to "tweak" your personalizations until you get them just right!

Step 6
Enjoy reading the news!  Now, when you log-in to Google and go to the News app, you will see recent news stories that are important to you, and from sources that you like.  The appearance of your screen can be customized even further, but this is what my News looks like today:

On the left is a list of topics.  I can click on any of these to jump down to that topic.  I like the default topic of "Top Stories" to be at the top of the list.  After that you can see my custom topics listed below.

In the center is the main list of news stories, grouped and sorted by my personalized topics.  There are lots of links to click on to get more details from the original web source.

Please note: Google News lists "recent" content found on various web sites.  When you execute a Google Internet search, you will get "all" content, ranked and prioritized, regardless of the content's age.

On the right is a list of recent topics, and other tools.


Every day I try to go into Google News and at least scan through the news stories.  If something catches my eye, I can easily get more details.  It works for me, and I hope it might save you a little time and help you be more productive!

Cheers!

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, South Dakota
www.BearButteGardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com

I Love Podcasts! And this is why!

Do you listen to Podcasts?  I do, and I think it is a great way to get a wealth of educational information!  If you want to learn about something, and I mean almost any topic, you may want to consider listening to podcasts too.

What exactly is a podcast?  According to About.com:

A podcast is an audio or video program formatted to be played on the iPod and made available for free or for purchase over the Internet.

Podcasts are shows, similar to radio or TV shows, that are produced by professionals or amateurs and posted to the Internet for download and listening or viewing. Many podcasts are made available for free, though some must be purchased.

I think of a podcast as a special radio talk show about a specific topic, that I can listen to whenever I choose.  Whenever I am ready to listen, there is an episode to listen to, of a topic that I choose!  Now that's convenient!  Most podcasts that I listen to are less than 60 minutes per episode, some as short as ten minutes per episode.  It works great for me - with my 50 minute commute to work.  All the podcasts I've listened to have been free.  Podcasts can be audio or video.  I generally only listen to audio podcasts.

What topics are available?  You name it!  Almost every topic you can think of!  Over several years, I've listened to podcasts about gardening, permaculture, agriculture, food freedom, healthy living, sustainability, homesteading, bee keeping, music, music/audio recording, mixing live music, music instruments, bluegrass bands, computers, databases, backpacking, canoeing, dog training, product reviews (e.g. cars, phones, computers, guitars, etc.), American history, world news, and politics, just to list a few.

Where are the podcasts?  In general terms, a podcast is a collection of episodes.  It is common for a podcast to have a new episode on some kind of schedule (e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.).  When someone creates a new podcast episode, it can be "published" in a couple different ways.  The most popular place to publish a podcast is to the Apple iTunes Store.  The iTunes Store contains an staggering quantity of podcasts.  These podcasts can then be subscribed to and down-loaded from the iTunes Store.

Here is a link to preview the Apple iTunes Store Podcast Directory.

A note about the Apple iTunes Store: In order to access the iTunes Store, you will need an Apple ID account.  You can create this account for free.  You do not need to use an Apple iPhone or iMac computer to use the iTunes Store.  You can access the iTunes Store from a variety of devices (e.g. iPhones, other smart phones, Apple iMac computers, Windows computers, etc.).  The process of creating an account leads you to believe you must provide a credit card to complete the process.  If you do so, the credit card will not be charged unless you purchase something from the iTunes Store.  And, they do make it pretty clear when you are about to purchase something (as opposed to downloading something that is free).  However, there is a way to create an Apple ID account without providing a credit card.  Follow this link to learn how.

Another way to publish a podcast episode is to put it on a specific web site that you author and control.  Other people can then go to your website and play or download the podcast.  An example of this can be found at the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund website.  On the main page of this website, they maintain a list of news topics.  Some of the news topics are actually links to specific podcast episodes.  From there you can listen to the podcast (streaming over the internet to your computer), subscribe to the podcast, or link to the iTunes Store.  Another example of this publishing method is the NPR (National Public Radio) Podcast Directory.

How to get podcasts?  I mainly get and listen to podcasts on my Apple iPhone, but you can get podcasts on most other smart phones and computers also.  First you need to find the podcast, then you can either "subscribe" to the podcast, or simply pick an episode and listen to it.

This is how I do it with my Apple iPhone:

1. I went to the Apple website and created an Apple ID Account.  Here is a link.
2. On my iPhone, I went to the Apple App Store and downloaded the free application "Podcasts" made by Apple.  This application will allow you to connect to the Apple iTunes store, find podcasts, subscribe to podcasts, manage your podcast subscriptions, and actually listen to podcast episodes.
3. From the "Podcasts" application, I can search for podcasts by entering key words/phrases (i.e. "organic gardening", etc.), or browse thru categories of podcasts (i.e. Arts, Business, Health, Music, Technology, etc.), or browse thru featured podcasts.
4. Once I find a podcast that looks interesting, I can either subscribe to it, or select an episode and listen to it.  Generally, I listen to at least one episode to decide if I'm interested.  If I like it, then I subscribe to the podcast.
5. After I subscribe to a podcast, I can configure the settings of that specific podcast to download episodes as I specify - or I can simply use the defaults.  Since I have an unlimited cell phone data plan, I'm generally fairly liberal with my download configuration.  I usually set it to download new episodes automatically, and keep all un-listened-to episodes on my iPhone.  After I listen to an episode it is automatically deleted from my iPhone.  If I didn't have the unlimited data plan and needed to be more frugal with data downloads, I would set the podcasts to download manually, and I would only download episodes when I have access to free wi-fi (e.g. at a coffee shop, library, etc.).  I could even only download specific episodes based on episode title and description.  However you get the podcast episodes to download, you can then listen to them any time you want to.  
6. I can connect my iPhone to the USB port in my car and listen to the podcast episodes with my car stereo.  This works great for my commute to work.  This also works great when we go on road trips across South Dakota, Wyoming, or Montana where Internet access is not available and radio stations are not cutting it.

This method of getting podcasts (e.g. using the Podcasts app to subscribe to podcasts in the iTunes Store) takes all the work out of it!  It becomes an automated process.  All I need to do is listen.  Nice!

Here is a list of my favorite podcasts right now.  These are all available on the iTunes Store by searching for the podcast name.  Or you can go to their associated websites by clicking on the links below.

• An Organic Conversation - An actual radio talk show based in San Francisco, that  also gets published to a podcast.  They cover health, food, environmental, and gardening topics.  Great show!  This is Michelle's favorite!

• The Permaculture Podcast - Permaculture education and interviews

• Terra Informa - Each week Terra Informa delivers coverage of breaking environmental news from across Canada and around the world. From corporate wrongdoings to tips on living a little greener, they are your source for the news that the mainstream media missed.

• Homesteading and Permaculture by Paul Wheaton - Sometimes Paul is very direct in making a point, and often uses adult language, but his content is very useful.

• The Organic View - The Organic View Radio Show, part of The Organic View Radio Network, is a unique, live, interactive, Internet talk-radio show that features key leaders, scientists and educators who work within industries that involve organics, environment, technology, pollinator health, wildlife, and clean energy.

• Sustainable World Radio - Ecology and Permaculture Podcast

• Food Rights Hour Podcast - The podcast about: small-scale farmer, consumer, and producer rights; effects of genetically engineered crops and foods; farm raids; nutrient-dense traditional foods; homeopathy; raw milk laws; sustainable agriculture and more!

• The Agroinnovations Podcast - Provides people with information about permaculture, organic agriculture, appropriate technology and other strategies to further relocalization and regenerative ecosystem management.

• Vegetable Gardening

• The Self-Sufficient Gardener

I hope this information helps you get started with the wonderful world of podcasts!  Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or suggestions you may have.

Rick Grosek

Bear Butte Gardens

Sturgis, South Dakota

www.BearButteGardens.com

Rick@BearButteGardens.com