RSS

I don't think that there is a single day that goes by where I don't wake up and check Google Reader for the latest updates from my favourite sites and blogs. The upside to getting updates via RSS are immediately recognizable: you never miss an update and updates from all of your sites are collected into one, convenient location. The only time a wrench is thrown into this is when sites make changes to their RSS feeds, temporarily knocking out service or duplicating posts you've already read, or when you are away from the internet for a few days and end up with hundreds of new updates. Some sites also don't provide you with the full content of their posts; instead they provide a "digest" version that requires you to click through to see the full content. This is mostly done to ensure that more traffic is driven to the site, especially if they gain revenue this way.

There are a few ways to add feeds to Google Reader. First, you can add feeds by searching for the one you want or directly adding the address through the "add a subscription" dialogue on the sidebar. Google Reader also provides a "Browse for Stuff" tab that provides bundles of popular feeds and can show you feeds that your contacts are subscribed to. Most sites that support RSS will also provide a link to their feed on their site, which will usually being you to a dialogue giving you a variety of different subscription options to choose from, including Google Reader.

To be honest, I don't really see much of a difference between using a web-based RSS reader vs a desktop one. It all comes down to the features that the desktop client provides, such as access to embedded video and other additional content. Also, in the case of digest feeds, many desktop clients will need to be used in conjunction with a browser to view the full post. I suppose that desktop versions do provide an advantage in allowing caching feed content for offline reading (a feature Google Reader used to support), but this would only really be of use in a select few cases, given the ubiquity of the internet and the rise of smartphones.