I follow so many blogs that I pretty much have to employ some sort of feed reader to keep them all straight. What I’m using right now is Google Reader.

But the bad thing about using a reader is that you don’t get to see what the blogs really look like unless you choose to go from each post’s listing in the reader to the actual URL for that post, which is a lot of back-and-forth clicking. I like seeing blog posts in their natural habitat, so to speak, with the theme or web design reflecting the blogger’s personality.

So I was tickled to discover a little widget that works with Google Reader: the “Next” button. You drag it to your toolbar, and whenever you get ready for some blog reading you just click the “next” button. It takes you directly to the next unread post from one of the feeds you’ve bookmarked in Google Reader. You are looking at the actual post on its actual web site, not at a feed. When you get done reading that post, you can click the “next” button again and it will take you to the next unread post on your list, and so on. Very elegant and easy.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to link to the instructions directly. If you use Google Reader, just look for the information in the blue “tips and tricks” box on the right side of the screen. It will pop up there eventually, on one of your visits.