Google Reader | Technology Blog

Google Reader Essentials Userscript

November 27th, 2008

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Helvetireader is a minimal Google Reader interface theme supplied as a userscript that turns Google Reader into an optimized feed reader that is displaying only the essentials. It was especially designed to view feeds in the expanded view using keyboard shortcuts.

A userscript compatible browser is needed for the new interface theme to work. Long time users of Google Reader will need a few minutes before they grow accustomed to the changes. Many would call them drastic and some might say that it is to minimalistic.

At its ore lies a CSS file that can be used to customize the display further to suit individual needs. The main advantage of this userscript is that it puts the focus on the feed items by removing unnecessary buttons and items in Google Reader.

Desktop RSS Reader Newzie

November 25th, 2008

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Switching from Google Reader to another RSS reader was no easy task. Google Reader provides a very good feed reading experience that is hard to top. The major problem I was facing with Google Reader was not truly related to that RSS reader alone but more to the way the account data was handled by Google.

I usually fired up Google Reader and kept it open all the time to read new RSS feeds. The problem with that approach was that this meant that I was always logged into my Google account. The Google account was used for other Google services as well. Having read about Gmail and Google vulnerabilities before I decided that it would be best to move from Google Reader to another client to prevent that the account data would fall into the wrong hands. Yes, the likelihood was not very high but the chance existed.

Newzie was one of the first RSS readers that I evaluated and I immediately liked it. It was easy to import the opml file from Google Reader into Newzie so that all of the subscribed feeds would be available in the new RSS reader as well.

Google Reader Automatically Translates Feeds

November 11th, 2008

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Automatic RSS news feed translation is a feature that might come in handy for numerous users of Google Reader. It is not uncommon to stumble upon a truly great website in another language that you might understand a bit or even not all at all. It is still possible to understand what is being said by using a translation service like Google Translate or using a direct approach and use menus, images or links to understand what it is all about.

But when it comes to feeds no such thing existed. You could visit the website whenever a new feed would be published, copy the url and paste it into some translation service but that was not very practicable especially for large websites with lots of news updates.

The Google Reader team implemented Google Translate into Google Reader which is now available for anyone to use. That should get rid of most of the hassle. It’s actually pretty easy and straightforward to use. Lets take the Genbeta feed for instance. Genbeta is a Spanish news site that covers Internet news. They sometimes have great news stories which anyone who does not speak Spanish or a related language does not understand. So it was all about the links and titles that they posted until now.

Check For Dead RSS News Feeds

October 11th, 2008

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Many tech savvy Internet users love RSS news feeds to keep up to date with the latest articles and news of their favorite websites. Unlike bookmarks however RSS news feeds cannot be checked for dead sites that do not get updated.

Rarst posted a process on his own website that makes it possible to check all feeds for dead links. The process can be broken down to exporting all feeds in an opml file, extracting the links into a new text file and checking the links with a link checker.

Some feed readers might provide an easier way of discovering dead blogs either because the owner abandoned it or deleted the website completely. Google Reader for one is offering a feature called Subscription trends which show inactive feeds. Users have to click on the Trends link in the top left menu and choose the inactive tab under Subscription trends to get there.

Google Reader Now Offering Option To Sort Alphabetically

September 24th, 2008

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Just four days ago a post entitled How To Sort Feeds In Google Reader Alphabetically Again was published on Ghacks that helped users of Google Reader to sort their feeds listing alphabetically again. The default sorting is alphabetically which becomes void when the user begins to drag and drop feeds around in Google Reader. Four days ago there was not a way to enable the option to sort feeds alphabetically again.

The only way to enable alphabetically sorting again was to create new folders and add the feeds to them. New folders sort the items alphabetically by default.

A comment by Fernando mentioned that Google added a new Options links beneath the feed list next to Manage Subscriptions in Google Reader that makes it possible to select the default method of sorting the feeds. The option can be set to “alphabetical” or “my order”. Selecting alphabetical will sort all feeds alphabetical again. One interesting aspect of the choice is that users who choose alphabetical will not be able to move feeds around in the same folder in Google Reader. It is still possible to move them to another folder though.

How To Sort Feeds In Google Reader Alphabetically Again

September 20th, 2008

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Google Reader sorts the feeds alphabetically which is probably the natural way of sorting news feeds. Once the user begins to move feeds around by dragging and dropping them to another location the sorting turns from alphabetical to one that does not sort the feeds at all but adds new feeds at the bottom of the list.

Users should not confuse that behavior with the temporary addition of new feeds to the bottom of the folder they have been put into. Once a user logs out and in again the feeds are sorted alphabetically again.

Google Reader offers no “sort” button that would make it possible to sort the feeds alphabetically again if the user started dragging and dropping around feeds previously. If you are one of those desperate users who want their feeds to be sorted alphabetically again read on.