How to Use Google Reader

• by Eric C.

Introduction

• RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a web format that syndicates a webpage's updates to a single location. Users can then track updates for multiple webpages at once by using an RSS aggregator. At first a popular tool for news updates, now RSS feeds are also available for blogs or podcasts that frequently update their content.

• Although many different aggregators are available, Google provides a web-based option. Since it debuted in 2005, Google Reader has completed an extensive public beta period and evolved into the user-friendly RSS reader it is today. And like any powerful application, it can be a little hard to get the hang of the interface.

• But its features and flexibility definitely make it worth the time to familiarize yourself with Google's web-based feed reader, even if you're used to another one. The following guide will instruct you on how to use Google Reader, from basic steps like registering your account to advanced techniques like managing multiple feeds without going insane.

Step 1: Create a Google Account

• To register your Google Reader you'll have to set up a Google Account, the set of credentials used across all the web-based applications offered by Google. If you already subscribe to one of their services, such as Gmail or Blogger, then you already have a Google Account. Log in to Google Reader with the same information with which you log in to the other services. But if you're new to the Google phenomenon and need an account in order to use Google Reader, it's simple to create one:

1. Go to the Google Reader homepage.
2. In the box marked Don't have a Google Account?, click on Create an Account.
3. Fill out the information in the subsequent window and submit it.
4. You can now log in to your Google Reader!

Step 2: Import Feeds from Another Service

• If you're migrating to Google Reader from another service, you may have already subscribed to so many feeds that it would be impossible to simply resubscribe to them all again. And if you're the tidy type, you've already organized them to your liking. Thankfully, you can import all your feeds into Google Reader with their organization intact.

1. Export your subscriptions from your previous reader into OPML format and remember where you save the file
   • -Google provides instructions for exporting OPML from the most common services.
2. Log in to your Google Reader.
3. At the top right of the window, click on Settings to manage the details of your Reader.
4. On the Settings page, click on the Import/Export tab.
5. Click on the button marked Browse... and select the OPML file you exported from your other feed reader service.
6. After you've selected it, click on Upload.
7. Click on Go to Google Reader to start reading your feeds!

Step 3: Subscribe to New Feeds

• Don't be intimidated if you don't have any subscriptions to import. There are plenty of simple ways to fill your Google Reader with as much content as you'd like.

Recommendations From Google Feed Bundles

• If you're not sure where to start looking for feeds or just want to get some suggestions for good ones, Google Reader provides feed bundles. These are groups of five to ten popular feeds on general topics, like News, Food, or Video, which you can subscribe to all in one click.

1. Log in to your Google Reader account.
2. Click on the Discover >> link in the green box on the left side of your reader.
3. You'll see a few bundles; click on More Bundles to show all of them.
4. Each bundle will display the number of included feeds. Move your mouse over the number to see the name of each specific feed.
5. Click the Subscribe button under a topic heading.
   • -Although you have to subscribe to them all at once, you can immediately delete any particular feeds you don't want.
6. All bundled feeds will appear in a folder on your subscription list.

Finding Feeds Through Google Reader

• If you're not interested in prepackaged bundles, you can also use keywords to search for new feeds. As with Google's search engine, there are a few tricks to make sure you always find what exactly what you're looking for.
  

  Add your favorite feeds or find new ones all through the same box. (Creative Commons photo by Lorenzo Massacci)

1. Click on the Add subscription link.
2. In the search box that opens up, enter keywords related to the feed you're looking for.
   1. You can enter general terms like Music for a broad search of popular music-related feeds.
   2. If you have a certain feed in mind but don't know its URL, you can also enter specific keywords for it.
      • -Example: If you can't find the link for the New York Times news feed, you can search for New York Times.
3. If you see a feed that you definitely want to subscribe to, click on the Subscribe button to start tracking it right away.
4. For a feed that you're curious but not sure about, click on the feed's title to read through it without subscribing.
   • -If you decide that it's worth following, there will be another Subscribe button above the items in the feed.

Adding Feeds Outside of Google Reader

• You don't have to rely on Google Reader to find interesting feeds. Any time you come across a website with content that you'd like to keep track of, all you need to do is find and copy the URL for its feed.

• In Your Browser's Address Bar:

• In Firefox, the RSS icon will appear as shown above. Similarly, any of the recommended browsers for Google Reader will display an RSS icon in the address bar.

1. Click on the icon to open a direct link to the RSS feed.
2. Copy the URL for the feed so you can paste it into Google Reader.

• Linked On The Webpage:

• Not all sites will show the feed icon in your address bar. But any page that has a feed will definitely link to it somewhere on their webpage. For example, at Mahalo we've linked our RSS feed at the bottom of our homepage.

• It can sometimes be difficult to find the feed link, especially if a site is cluttered. Here are a couple of tips to help you find it:
• Look for the RSS icon on the page:

1. Look for orange-and-white feed icons, like the ones we use on our homepage.
   • This is standard for Mozilla and Microsoft products.
2. If you're using a Mac, keep an eye out for a different, blue-and-white icon like these. Though the icon is different, use the feeds in exactly the same way as those marked by the Mozilla standard icon.
   

   When browsing in Safari, notice that the RSS icon published on the page may be different from Apple's own icon in the address bar. Use them both the same way.
3. Feed URLs are often linked next to the icon.
4. If there's no link by the icon, click on the icon itself. You'll be taken to the RSS URL you need.

• Search the text on the page for feed buzzwords:

1. Pull up a text search in your browser (CTRL-F on PCs and Apple-F on Macs).
2. Look for keywords, like subscribe, syndicate, feed, RSS, XML or Atom, that commonly appear with feed links.
3. As noted above, you should either see a feed URL, or be able to click on the keyword to access it.

• Once you've found the link to a feed that you want to subscribe to, adding it to your Google Reader is simple:

1. Copy the URL for the feed.
2. Log in to your Google Reader account.
3. Click on the Add subscription link in the green box on the sidebar menu.
4. Paste the link into the box that opens up.
5. Hit Enter and it will appear in your list of subscribed feeds.

Step 4: Read Subscribed Feeds

• Now that you have subscribed to a few feeds, it's time to start reading all the information that is being gathered for you. All of your feeds will appear in your reading list (the list of feeds on the left side of your screen).

Choose Item View

• When you open a feed, it will appear on the right side of the screen. There are two ways to view it:

• Expanded View:

1. Default viewing format in Google Reader.
2. Loads each item most similarly to how it would appear on the original website.
3. Allows you to quickly read each story in full.
4. Will take longer to load, since it has to bring all the content into the reader.
5. Click on the headline to view the original post from the feed's website.

• List View:

1. The other viewing format, which you can enable by clicking on the List View tab.
2. Fully loads only one selected item at a time.
3. All other items are shown in a headline format similar to the Gmail Inbox layout.
4. Allows you to scan all of the feed's updates for specific information.
5. Will load more quickly than Expanded View.
6. Click on the headline to go directly to the original post.

Step 5: Share Feed Items

• If you find an update in one of your feeds that you want to tell other people about, you can easily share it with them.

• Via Gmail:
• It is Google Reader after all, so it's natural that support for Gmail is integrated into your Google Reader.

1. Click on the Email button—circled above in red—at the bottom of the feed item and a composition box will expand.
2. Enter the recipient's email address.
3. You can enter up to 1000 characters if you want to explain why you've sent your friend this particular item.

• Via Google Sharing:
• For those who don't want to flood their friends' inboxes (the kind souls that they are), Google Reader has an integrated sharing system that will let you easily show stuff to your friends without spamming them!

1. To share items, click on the Share button—circled above in green—at the bottom of every feed item.
   • -If you choose to, you can also immediately click Unshare to keep it to yourself.
2. Click on Your shared items—circled above in purple—in the sidebar menu to see everything you've shared.
3. Your shared items contains the link to a sort of mini-blog webpage.
   • -The webpage publishes each of your shared items into a blog format.
   • -It is synchronized to your shared items and will automatically post when you add a new share, and automatically delete when you remove an old one.
   • -The link that is shown will never change, so you can pass it along to anyone who wants to keep track of your shares.
4. Your shared items also contains a link to your personal RSS feed.
   • -It is a dedicated feed that publishes any items that you've added to your shared items.
   • -It is also a permanent link, so you can pass it along to all your RSS-savvy friends who want to track your shared items in their own readers.

Step 6: Organize Subscribed Feeds

• As your reading list grows, things will naturally get a little cluttered. Luckily, it's easy to organize them into folders and keep track of important items.

Track Your Subscriptions

• The first step to keeping your subscriptions organized is to make sure you're only subscribing to feeds that you actually read. To help you figure this out, Google Reader has a tracking system for your subscribed feeds. Access this information by clicking on Trends in the sidebar menu on the left.

• Reading Trends:
• Provides your personal stats on how much you've been reading and sharing each of your feeds. It is especially helpful if you're trying to figure out which feeds you don't really need to keep subscribing to.

• Subscription Trends:
• Provides your feeds' stats, with options for seeing which feeds update most frequently as well as how many other people subscribe to a particular feed.

Group Feeds With Tags

• You can group whole feeds together under a single tag, which will place them in a folder on your reading list. To create tags for your feeds:

1. Click on Manage subscriptions at the bottom of your reading list.
2. To the right of each feed, there is a pull-down menu marked Change folders...
3. Select New Folder... and enter the name of your new tag.
   • -The selected feed is now part of the new tag, and will show up under that folder name in your reading list.
4. Assign any other feed to that new tag by using the other pull-down menus.

• You can also tag individual feed items under as many other groups as you need to:

1. Open an item in one of your feeds.
2. At the bottom right, click on the Edit Tags link.
3. Type the name of any additional tags you've created.
4. That item will now appear in the list of updates for all the included tags, as well as in its original feed.

Bookmark Items By Starring Them

• In the same way that you'd bookmark a website in your browser, you can star an item in a feed. You can then refer back to it later without having to search through the entire feed. There are two ways to star an item once you've opened it:

1. Click on the outlined star next to the item's title.
2. Click on the Add star button at the bottom left of the opened item.

• When you need to find them again, click on the Starred items link in the main menu on the left side of Google Reader.

Step 7: Remove Unnecessary Feeds

• If, after tagging and organizing your feeds, there are still some that you just don't need, then it's time to unsubscribe. You can delete them from your reading list in a couple of ways.

• Deleting an Open Feed:
• This the fastest way to delete a feed, although you can only get rid of one at a time:

1. Click on the feed's title in your reading list.
2. Click on the pull-down menu marked Feed settings...
3. Select Unsubscribe.

• Deleting Multiple Feeds:
• You can go to your Google Reader Settings to delete a few feeds at once:

1. Click on Manage Subscriptions.
2. Place a check mark by every feed that you want to delete.
3. Click on the Unsubscribe button.

• Deleting Tags:
• Deleting all its containing feeds will not delete a tag that you've created. To get rid of the tag itself:

1. Click on Manage Subscriptions.
2. Click on the Tags tab.
3. Place a check mark by every tag that you want to delete
4. Click the Delete selected button.

Tips for Using Google Reader Like a Pro

• Eventually you may have more feeds than you know what to do with. If and when this happens, there are a few ways to deal with all the information constantly pouring into your Google Reader.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

• Using your mouse to click through updates may work fine when you're starting out in Google Reader. But for power users who have lots of updates to sift through, learning to use keyboard shortcuts is a must. Google Reader has many keyboard shortcuts to help you use your feeds as efficiently as possible. Although they're fairly self-explanatory, there are a few vital commands to learn:

• Navigational Commands:

1. Press J or K to move back and forth through the items in a feed that you have open.
2. Hold Shift and press J or K to move through the items in your reading list.
3. Press Shift and X to expand or collapse a folder in your reading list.
4. Press Shift and O to load a feed so you can start reading it.
5. Press Shift and ? at any time in Google Reader to see the full list of commands.

• Item Commands:

1. Press 1 to switch to Expanded View.
2. Press 2 to switch to Item View.
3. Press U to toggle the sidebar menu on and off.
4. Press V to open up the original webpage for a selected feed item.
5. Press R to refresh your feeds.
   • -Google Reader will automatically refresh every few minutes, but with the keyboard shortcut you can force a refresh whenever you need to.

Use Your Screen Space Wisely

• Despite being confined to your browser window, Google Reader lets you easily adapt screen space based on your immediate needs. When you're reading feeds, there are a few techniques to use as much of your screen as you can.

1. Switch between Expanded and Item View.
   • -Quickly scan the items in Item View, and switch to Expanded View if there's something interesting that you want to read closely.
2. Hide the sidebar menu whenever you can.
   • -The sidebar takes up a lot of space that is wasted if all you want to do is read a certain feed.
3. Use the Show new items option when viewing a feed.
   • -If you have a lot to get through, don't clutter the list with old posts that you've already read.

Filter Feeds For Important Items

• For those who cannot realistically read through every one of their subscriptions, it is important not only to move quickly through feeds but to save some items for later. Assorted power users recommend organizing your feeds into folders that make sense to you, using the Star and Share functions to your advantage, and tagging early, tagging often; some habits will work better for you than others. Just remember only to save items that you're sure you'll want to read eventually. And don't forget to actually read them, too.

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Resources for How to Use Google Reader

• Google Labs: Google Reader Help
• Lifehacker: From Bloglines to Google Reader (October 6, 2006)
• Google: More Google Products
• Wikipedia: OPML
• Google Reader: How do I export my subscriptions from other services?
• Blog Post: Google Reader Suggest 'Feed Bundles' to Users (October 1, 2007)
• Blog Post: Tips for Google Reader Search (September 9, 2007)
• Mozilla: Feed Icon Guidelines (August 1, 2006)
• Google Reader: How do I find a feed?
• Official Google Reader Blog: I like big charts and I cannot lie (January 03, 2007)
• Webware.com: Newbie's Guide to Google Reader (July 16, 2007)
• Lifehacker: Getting good with Google Reader (February 6, 2007)
• Google: Google Reader keyboard shortcuts
• Official Google Reader Blog: We made it (a little bit) better (October 9, 2006)
• Blog Post: Quick Tips for Google Reader Power Users (February 4, 2007)
• Blog Post: How I use Google Reader (September 30, 2007)
• Blog Post: 7 Google Reader Tips and Tricks (November 22, 2006)

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