johng Blog

Yes that’s another Google service I’ll be using on a regular basis. Add it to email, calendar, desktop search and blog ads and I should be worried. Am too committed to a single company? Maybe. Have they got so much of my personal information that they could build up a highly accurate profile of who I am? Definitely, but there’s no denying Google Reader is a great product.

Since the ability to sort the items by oldest first (chronological order = important) was added it became a viable alternative to NewsGator. Add to that the innovative use of keyboard shortcuts, Gmail integration and more Ajax magic and it really delivers.

One of key features any aggregator needs is to track what items you have seen and what items you haven’t. The great thing about ‘Reader’ is if you have seen an item it knows it has been read. No clicking ‘mark as read’ or worrying about moving away from the page as it’s all handled automatically.

One of the most impressive features is found in the Goodies section. A shortcut can be placed in your browser’s bookmarks which takes you to the next unread item on your list. Except it takes you to that item’s source page not to the Google reader page. This is amazing stuff quickly clicking through hundreds of different web pages while they are being marked off as read by the reader without your knowledge.

It’s still a little rough around the edges in some areas (interface) but I am happy to make the switch over with the recent downfall of NewsGator and the excellent new features provided here.