Tips on Using Google Reader with Site Feeds

As the World Wide Web exploded with millions of sites it became tedious to surf to each site especially in the age of Dial-Up. Hence Site Feeds were invented to push content to your desktop. Instead of using a browser to fetch each site content individually viewers subscribed to Posts Atom as in Blogger Blogs and read all the content in a Feed reader.

Google Reader is an online feed reader or aggregator where you can subscribe to multiple site feeds to read their content. Now with Google Gears you can use it to read your feeds on the tram : Official Google Reader Blog: Oh Sam I Am, can I read it on the tram?


Here are some more tips on using Google Reader.............
LOGIN TO GOOGLE READERGoogle Reader is an online feed aggregator where you only need a free Google Account to access it. For this get an account and go to http://www.google.com/reader in your browser.

ADD OR SUBSCRIBE TO FEEDS

To subscribe to a site feed go to that site in your browser and look for the orange feed icon such as the one at the top of the middle column in this blog. Just click on this and the feed will open in Google Reader. You can also right click the orange icon and select 'Copy link shortcut'. Then in Google Reader click on +Add Subscription link in the left pane and paste the feed url there and OK it. Blogspot blog feeds have the following links :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Substitute actual blog name in place of yourblogname. You can also subscribe to Comment Feeds and Label Feeds.

NEXT BOOKMARKLET

The Next Bookmarklet can be used to navigate to the next unread item in your reading list and marks it as read. To get it go to the Settings Page. Under Goodies tab click and drag the Next button to your bookmark bar.

GOOGLE READER IN iGOOGLE

You can add Google Reader to your personalized Homepage. This will enable you to see updates at a glance. Just click this button to do so :

GOOGLE READER MOBILE

To get Google Reader on your data phone point your mobile phone's browser to www.google.com/reader/m. You can also go to iGoogle (Personalized Home) and access the Google reader Gadget if you have installed it beforehand.

GO OFFLINE WITH GOOGLE GEARS

First install Google Gears. Then click the "Offline" link in the top right of Google Reader. This will download your latest items so that they're available when you are offline.

IMPORT/EXPORT OPML FILES

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is used to exchange lists of web feeds between web feed aggregators.. If you wish to import all your feeds from another feed reader or export to them no need to add each individually. Just go to Google Reader Settings and click on the relevant links.

LABEL/TAG YOUR FEED SUBSCRIPTIONS

Under the Tags tab in Google Reader settings you can add tags to your feeds and make them public or private. Simply hit g then l to bring up the label selector. Then begin labeling an individual item, by hitting the L key on your keyboard.

SUBSCRIBER COUNT

The number of subscribers to your feed is available at Feedburner. To increase the number add a ADD TO GOOGLE button to your site. For example click on this to subscribe to this blog :

PUT A CLIP ON YOUR SITE

Add a clip of items from your Google Reader to your site. This has two advantages : It adds content to your site. It enables you to share your items with your viewers. To do this go to Put a Clip on your site. Click the Add to Blogger button or copy and paste the code given.

MONITOR YOUR READING TRENDS

You can monitor your reading trends by going to the Trends page. This shows the number of subscriptions, read items, starred items and shared items.

TOOLS FOR GOOGLE READER

These are add ons which will optimize Google Reader reading area and Reader button for IE. More tools here.

Have a tip to share? Put it in your comments to this post.


In forthcoming posts we will see how to combine multiple feeds into one feed. Also coming soon is putting your Reader in a Google Gadget.

Source : http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/09/tips-on-using-google-reader-with-site.html