Jimmie Rodgers (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jaypee) wrote,@ 2008-05-06 09:10:00 |
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on google reader
So, google reader has just introduced some new features that finally puts it in the realm of "amazing". It's things they should have had much earlier on, and makes a ton of sense, social bookmarking. I'm also now able to edit tags on specific items that come in instead of the whole folder the feed is in.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the existing awesomenesses of google reader, let me show you them. Basically it started out as a feed aggregator. Great, I could set up all my feeds to go into one place online, instead of the two separate desktop clients. It became like checking email, and I was hooked early on.
Then they added folders, and I was able to organize and prioritize them. Awesome, that allowed me to be more organized and time-efficient with my "feeding". Then they added the sharing feature. So you could not only organize your feeds, but share them with other google reader users. Nice, but not terribly useful, except that you also had a shared item feed of your own.
The feature that really started to change things was when they integrated reader with gchat. If you both were contacts on gchat, and you both used reader, then you could both see each other's feeds. That increased the number of people I share items with from two to eight in a week.
Yesterday, they introduced social bookmarking as well. It's just like del.icio.us. You find a link, you bookmark it with a comment. It then goes into your google reader feed. So now, I can not only share interesting articles through the feeds, but share items I find myself. Basically, they just took google notes, and threw it into reader as well. A very smart move, as I doubt google notes was getting as much use as bookmarks, etc.
How does this change things? Well, now you've got an aggregator paired with a bookmarking application, that you can then share, and tag feed items and bookmarks as you like. Everything is entirely online, and you can take it off-line with google gears, which will sync up next time you are online. You can then search your feeds as far back as you've added them.
I can't point out how useful of a tool this is. I no longer have to remember anything I've seen online. I share it, star it, tag it, or do nothing. Then I just search in that vast pool of stuff I've collected from the streams I've pointed to go into it. That's right, I just ask the lady of the lake "find: sword Excalibur", and she throws it right to me. I know that I had seen it already, or I just knew something was there.
So, google reader has just introduced some new features that finally puts it in the realm of "amazing". It's things they should have had much earlier on, and makes a ton of sense, social bookmarking. I'm also now able to edit tags on specific items that come in instead of the whole folder the feed is in.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the existing awesomenesses of google reader, let me show you them. Basically it started out as a feed aggregator. Great, I could set up all my feeds to go into one place online, instead of the two separate desktop clients. It became like checking email, and I was hooked early on.
Then they added folders, and I was able to organize and prioritize them. Awesome, that allowed me to be more organized and time-efficient with my "feeding". Then they added the sharing feature. So you could not only organize your feeds, but share them with other google reader users. Nice, but not terribly useful, except that you also had a shared item feed of your own.
The feature that really started to change things was when they integrated reader with gchat. If you both were contacts on gchat, and you both used reader, then you could both see each other's feeds. That increased the number of people I share items with from two to eight in a week.
Yesterday, they introduced social bookmarking as well. It's just like del.icio.us. You find a link, you bookmark it with a comment. It then goes into your google reader feed. So now, I can not only share interesting articles through the feeds, but share items I find myself. Basically, they just took google notes, and threw it into reader as well. A very smart move, as I doubt google notes was getting as much use as bookmarks, etc.
How does this change things? Well, now you've got an aggregator paired with a bookmarking application, that you can then share, and tag feed items and bookmarks as you like. Everything is entirely online, and you can take it off-line with google gears, which will sync up next time you are online. You can then search your feeds as far back as you've added them.
I can't point out how useful of a tool this is. I no longer have to remember anything I've seen online. I share it, star it, tag it, or do nothing. Then I just search in that vast pool of stuff I've collected from the streams I've pointed to go into it. That's right, I just ask the lady of the lake "find: sword Excalibur", and she throws it right to me. I know that I had seen it already, or I just knew something was there.
