RSS feeds are becoming a staple of internet usage for a lot of people.  In fact, if you recall the Bluestreak study I mentioned several weeks ago, you'll remember that RSS was an 'essential' part of life for half the folks surveyed.  There are a lot of options of viewing and organizing RSS feeds.  Some are stand alone products.  Some are built into web browsers.  And others are online services.

Yesterday Google updated its online Reader service to include several new sorting options.  Instead of being forced to view RSS feeds in order of newest to oldest, Google Reader users now have the option to sort articles from newest to oldest or oldest to newest.  This really helps if you're trying to keep a time line straight or if one entry in the feed builds off another.

In addition, Google introduced an auto sort feature.  For the time being, the feature mixes all of your feeds together and shows entries from less-frequently updated sources first.  Since this is the first incarnation of the feature, Google says that it will be evolving in the future to include new and interesting ways of dealing with RSS.

Want to give Google Reader a try?  Sign in  with your Google account (or create one) and then subscribe to the Internet Marketing Monitor's feed.  Come on… I never said I was above throwing out a shameless plug.