Google Reader Gets Social Savvy: Shares Friends Reading Habits
Google Reader has successfully been implementing new social features recently, like commenting on shared items, meeting friends of friends etc. Today, they annnounced several new tweaks which gives the popular RSS reader an extra edge over others.
- Friends Trends
If you are finding it hard to keep up with your friends shared items in Google Reader, a new set of tabs in the trends section called “Friends trends.” can come in handy. It allows you to see which of those friends are most valuable to you by telling you stuff like which of your friends share the most articles, and whose shared items you actually read.
- Regional users
In one of the many iterations in the comments feature, comments are now available for non-English users also.
- Share notes on Mobile
The mobile interface has also gone under the knife, with the addition of a very useful feature which allows you to post notes in Reader on the go!
- New users
They have also released a new revamped user page that looks really helpful for the newbies. It has a welcome video and tutorial. It also helps you get started by pointing to some popular feeds on the internet.
- iGoogle import
For Google lovers like me who use iGoogle actively and have all kinds of customised RSS widgets on their iGoogle home page, a nifty little iGoogle import functionality has been added. This one-click button allows you to import feeds from iGoogle to Google Reader instead of you taking the pain of resubscribing to every RSS source again.
It looks as if the Google Reader team is committed in providing us with simple and interactive features. Commenting and making new friends both help in connecting better whereas a new user page and import features makes things easier for new users. These might look like small changes right now, but Google Reader sure is heading the right way in social media.
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