Google Reader

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds. It was released by Google on October 7, 2005 through Google Labs.

Features

Interface

Major revisions to Reader's interface were made on September 28, 2006. Nick Baum, Product Manager on the Google Reader team, whilst being interviewed by Robert Scoble, stated that the redesign is a movement toward making news aggregation something for the general public to enjoy. [1]

Here are some of the features that are now included within Google Reader:

• A front page that lets you see new items at a glance
• Import and export subscription lists as an OPML file
• Keyboard shortcuts for main functions
• Choice between list view or expanded view for item viewing (showing either just the story title or with a description, respectively)
• Automatic marking of items as read as they are scroll past (expanded view only)

Organization

You can subscribe to feeds using either Google Reader's search function, or by entering in the exact URL of the RSS or Atom feed. New posts from your feeds are then shown on the left-hand side of the screen. You can then order that list by date or relevance. Items can also be organized with labels, as well as being able to create Starred Items for easy access.

Sharing

Items in Google Reader can be shared with other Web users. This can be done by sending a link through e-mail, directing the user to the shared article; or Google Reader users can create a basic webpage, that includes all shared items from their account. Other people can then subscribe to this collated feed. Finally, users can insert a snippet of JavaScript code into their website, that will display a certain collection of shared stories in a small box.

Mobile access

A mobile interface was released on May 18 2006. It is can be used by phones that support XHTML or WAP 2.0.

Personalized Homepage

On May 4 2006 Google released a new feature which enables feeds from Reader to be displayed on Google Personalized Homepage. It lets the users scroll through items, and click on them for a description.

Firefox integration

Google Reader is included within Mozilla Firefox 2.0's feed recognition, which can automatically redirect users to Google Reader's Add Subsciption screen to add the feed.

Requirements

In addition to a (free) Google Account, Google Reader requires one of the following web browsers to work:

• Internet Explorer 6+
• Firefox 1.0+
• Safari 1.3+
• Netscape 7.2+
• Mozilla 1.7+
• Opera 9.0+

In all cases, JavaScript must be enabled for Google Reader to work.

Competition

Its main online competitors are My Yahoo!, Newsgator, Rojo and Bloglines.

External links

Google Pages:

• Google Reader
• Official Google Reader Blog

Other Google Reader Pages:

• Google Reader review (Linux.com, 10/18/06)
• Google Reader printable Cheat Sheet for Shortcuts