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I like to somehow mark interesting things I read. Whether it’s via del.icio.us or a Google Reader star, I save interesting/helpful posts, thinking I might need or want it some day. The problem I have with starring feeds is I’ve starred so many that, in the event I should need something, it becomes somewhat overwhelming to find. Devoting stars to one concept cuts the benefit down to about 5%, so that doesn’t work, either. I know this is the exact idea behind tags, but I find I sometimes tag inconsistently (‘photography’ vs. ‘photos’ vs. ‘photo’ vs. ‘flickr’).

Google Reader has this nice little feature known as “sharing” that I’ve yet to use. Actually, I never had a reason to use it. And maybe I still don’t have a reason, but it’s stupidly simple, so why not. As you may know, photography is increasingly taking over my interests. Sharing items may be a reasonable way to keep track of all the interesting/helpful posts related to photography.

If you’re at all interested in photography, you can catch all of what I consider to be “golden nugget photography posts” via my shared items page. Oh, and there’s a feed for my shared items as well (shared items RSS). The site itself is somewhat useless, as you can’t search it or easily access older posts, so the feed is probably the way to go. But it’s a place for me to see valuable photography posts inside of Google Reader, which is kind of nice.

I’m not sure how long this has been around, but it’s new to me. Google Reader Trends allows you to see the frequency of data coming through your reader, and in theory, can help you become more efficient at reading that data. If you’re heavily into RSS and your subscription list is getting out of hand, this might help you to recognize the feeds you might not want anymore based on how often you read them, and how often that feed is updated. Of course, this assumes you use Google Reader. I thought it was interesting to see when I read my feeds the most. Apparently I read the most while at work (over lunch, but still)—sorry Lee! I’ll be interested to see if those numbers come down (reading while at work that is) now that I’m doing stuff I like again. C# and .NET simply wasn’t keeping me focused.

Sometimes I want to find something in Google Reader. Something I read awhile ago, but don’t remember where. I star posts I think might be useful, but sometimes I don’t know they’re useful until I need them. Google, being the number one search company, does not provide a search for Google Reader. I’m not sure why. Nevertheless, I came across a Greasemonkey script to do just that. It takes a decent amount of effort, though (it’s easy, it’s just not a “click to install and you’re done” type of script). And I’m sure (if you wanted this) you could figure it out, but I’ll explain it anyway.

Here are the steps to add the custom search to your reader:

1. Download your OPML file from your reader to your Desktop (or wherever).
2. Sign up for a custom search here: Google Co-op—for your search, just fill in whatever you want as the name, description, keywords, etc.
3. Click “Next” then “Finish”. Then click on “control panel” then “advanced”. Look for the annotations section. Upload your OPML file you’ve just downloaded.
4. Install this Greasemonkey script.
5. Right-click on the monkey and choose “Manage User Scripts”.
6. Select the “Google Reader Custom Search” and click “Edit” to open the JavaScript (Note: if you haven’t chosen a default editor for Greasemonkey scripts, it will prompt you to do so the first time).
7. Near the top of the file, you’ll see a variable named SearchURL. This variable needs to have the address of your custom search. To get that URL, go back to your custom search homepage, and search for “anything”.
8. Copy the response URL and paste it in the JavaScript file as the value of the SearchURL. You’ll be replacing the text “REPLACE-THIS” that’s there by default (Note: don’t remove the quotes).
9. Lastly, remove the “&q=anything” from the URL you pasted in place of the “REPLACE-THIS” text. Save everything and “ok/close” all open windows.
10. Refresh your Google Reader and you should have a custom search at the top.

The down side? You have to do this on every machine where you use Google Reader. The ideal case would be for Google to go ahead and implement a search for their reader, as I’m sure it would work a lot better than this solution. Until then, this might get you by.

Wasn’t it just today/yesterday when I was complaining about the things I didn’t like with Google Reader? Well, lo and behold, they’ve met my needs graciously. Last night, Google upgraded their reader and I’m thrilled with the new changes. Let’s review what I didn’t like, versus what’s new—shall we? Here’s the basic list:

• Problem 1: inability to load list with desired feeds by default (such as a specific label, or excluding feeds in a black list)
• Problem 2: going to a new page to add a new feed (way too inconvenient)
• Problem 3: previewing a feed before subscribing
• Problem 4: scrolling to the bottom of the page to read (long) feeds (basically, losing sight of the feed column)
• Problem 5: inability to know if there are new feeds per subscription

Now that I’ve mentioned the basic list of issues I had, how does the new reader correct these things? Let’s take a look:

Solution to Problem 1: Get rid of the feed column entirely, and replace it with a subscription list. Not only a subscription list, but a sophisticated subscription list with collapsible folders and the ability to toggle between all feeds and updated feeds—much, much easier. Oh, and the list is constantly working for you by performing a consistent checkup on your feeds via Ajax. A nice touch.

Solution to Problem 2: A fancy little drop-down to add new feeds. When you subscribe to a new feed, you don’t leave your current location throughout the entire process.

Solution to Problem 3: Eliminate the feed preview before subscription. Really, this was unnecessary. Admitedly, I can see the value, but usually a person knows if they want to subscribe. I viewed the preview as an unnecessary intermediate step and I’m glad it’s gone.

Solution to Problem 4: Keep the feeds in an expanding container. I always hated reading long feeds beacause I had to scroll to the bottom of the page, sometimes losing complete site of the feed listing. The use of spacebar helped the issue, but it was still inconvenient. I usually just skipped what I couldn’t see, unless it was really interesting. Now feeds scroll inside of a container, allowing the subscription list to always remain visible.

Solution to Problem 5: Display a count of the new items per feed subscription. I probably get the most satisfaction from this upgrade. Not only are the feeds marked with a count, but they’re distinguished as bold (in case you want to view all feeds). Wait, I’m not done—there are counts per folder (or per tag), too!

Not only are my quirks corrected, but we have a few bonus features as well. Things like updated shortcuts, an addition of a “home” section to show what’s new (including the latest post from the blog), previous/next buttons for easier navigation, a “mark all as read” link, and an option to mark items as read simply by scrolling down the list. Not to mention the ability to toggle betwen “expandable” and “list” views, which might be familiar to all of those gmail users out there. If you think about it, a feed reader is like an inbox. Now you have the option to treat it like one. Plus, the UI has been carefully crafted in my opinion. Have you noticed the subtle difference between (in expandable view) a new item and a read item? I’m a sucker for the subtle things. Overall, I have to say, I’m impressed with this reader and it gives me more motivation to keep up with my feeds. I’ve come across several new things while writing this post, so I’m anxiously awaiting to find more of the new features that have slipped by.

Despite what I love about Newshutch, Google pulled me back in. Ultimately, I’ve come to realize that speed has so much precedence over any other feature (to me); I had to give Google another try. Interface is up in the rankings, too, but Google isn’t too bad at that. The major reason I left Google Reader for Newshutch was because the organization of the feeds. Some like the “give me what’s new no matter what subscription it’s in” view. Populating the list with the most recent feeds across a subscription list is not good with me. What if I wanted to read Digg through my reader? I can’t with this model. I’m then forced to rely on the subscriptions menu (Google Reader). In Newshutch, I like the way I’m aware of something new, but had the choice to view it based on the subscription. I think the count is important, too. Often I read feeds depending on how much time I have. If there’s only (1) post, I can read it now. If there are (8) posts, I better wait until I have a few minutes.

The problem with Google’s implementation of my desired “view by subscription” option, is not showing any indication of new feeds. It’s kind of irritating, but at the same time, the speed is unbelievable. I thought of labeling certain feeds with a key label so I could pull my top feeds based on that label (similar to the “categories” I used in Newshutch), but I don’t like that as much. Although, Google’s “Related Subscriptions” menu is pretty handy—maybe that will satisfy me for a while. Either way I don’t think I’ll be able to get over the quickness of Google’s feed display. Plus, their shortcuts are sweet. Particularly, g+l for labels, j/k for next/prev, and v for viewing in a new window (tab).