Reading Blog Feeds with Google Reader

When you want to read your blog feedsfrom Google Blog Search or other sourcesyou need some sort of feed reading mechanism. That can be a feed reader software program, or a website that aggregates feeds from a variety of sources.

Google Reader is such a feed aggregator. Actually, it's more than that; Google Reader is a web-based reader that lets you read feeds from both blogs and from news sites. You can use Google Reader to read the latest blog postings and the latest news headlines. All you have to do is subscribe to the content on a site or blog, and then use Google Reader to read the latest postings or stories.

You access Google Reader at reader.google.com. Google Reader lets you read both blog feeds and news feeds. That means you can use Google Reader to display the latest news headlines from popular news sites, as well as catch the latest ponderings from your favorite bloggers. All you need to do is know which feed you want to subscribe to; Google Reader automatically displays the latest content, all in one place.

As you can see in Figure 6.11, the most recent postings from the feeds you've subscribed to are displayed in the left list. To read a posting, just highlight it in this list; the fulltext of the posting is now displayed in the big right-hand window.

By default, postings you've already read are not displayed in the posting list. To view previously read posts, just click the Visible link below the posting list.

To read all the postings for a selected blog, highlight a posting for that blog and then click the blog's name; this switches the view to display the most recent postings for this blog only. You can return to your entire subscription list by clicking the Home link.

Tip

If you'd rather read a posting on the original blog site itself, rather than in Google Reader, click the Show Original Item link next to the post title. The selected post on the original blog site will now open in a new browser window.

Search for Feeds

If you're not sure which feeds you want to subscribe to, you can use Google's search feature to search for feeds by topic or content, and then subscribe to the feeds you find in the search results. Here's how to do it:

From the main Google Reader page, enter your query into the top-of-page search box.
Click the Search for New Content button.
When the search results page appears, as shown in Figure 6.12, read through the results. Each listing is for a particular news story or blog posting; you can click any story/posting title and read the full article.

Figure 6.12. Searching for a feed to subscribe to.

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When you find a blog you want to subscribe to, enter an optional label for the feed and then click the Subscribe button.

Google Reader now redisplays the search results page, with the message "You have subscribed to..." at the top of the page. You can now continue to add more feeds, conduct a new search, or click the Return to Home link to return to the main Google Reader page.

Enter the Site's URL

If you know where a blog or website is (that is, if you know the site's address), you can search for that blog within Google Reader, and then make your subscription. Here's how it works:

From the main Google Reader page, enter the URL of the blog or news site into the top-of-page search box.
Click the Search for New Content button.
Google Reader now displays a page for the site you entered, as shown in Figure 6.13. This page lists the blog title and the most recent posts. (The currently highlighted post is also displayed; highlight a different post to read it, instead.)

Figure 6.13. Reading a blog's contentsand subscribing to the blog feed.

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To subscribe to the feed for this blog, click the Subscribe button.

Enter the Feed URL

If you know a feed URL (different from the blog or website URL), you can enter that URL directly into Google Reader to subscribe. Here's how to do it:

From the main Google Reader page, click the Edit Subscriptions link.
When the next page appears, click the Add a Feed button.
Enter the feed URL into the Feed URL box, as shown in Figure 6.14.

Figure 6.14. Subscribing by entering a feed URL.

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Click the Preview button.
Google Reader now displays a page for the site you entered. To subscribe to this feed, click the Subscribe button.

Import Feeds from Other Readers

If you've already created a list of feed subscriptions in another feed aggregator or feed reader, you can import that list into Google Readerwhich definitely beats re-entering your feeds by hand. This assumes, of course, that your previous feed reader/aggregator saved its subscription list in industry-standard OMDP format, and that you have that file stored on your computer's hard disk. All that assumed, here's what you need to do:

From the main Google Reader page, click the Edit Subscriptions link.
When the next page appears, click the Add a Feed button.
Click the Import Subscriptions link.
When the page refreshes, as shown in Figure 6.15, click the Browse button to find and select the OMDP file that holds your feed subscriptions.

Figure 6.15. Importing a list of subscribed-to feeds.

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Click the Upload button.

That does the trick. All the feeds in your old subscription file will now appear as subscriptions in Google reader.

Tip

Google Reader isn't the only feed aggregator site on the web. Some popular competing aggregators include Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) and NewsGator (www.newsgator.com). Alternatively, you can read your blog feeds in a freestanding feed reader software program, such as FeedDemon (www.feeddemon.com).

Editing Your Subscriptions

Want to change your subscription listto delete a feed, or change information about a feed? It's easy enough to do from Google Reader's Edit Subscriptions page. All you have to do is click the Edit Subscriptions link on the main Google Reader page, and you'll see the page shown in Figure 6.16. The bottom of the page (not shown in the figure) is a rehash of the main page; the top of the page is where you do your editing.

To delete a feed, all you have to do is click the Edit link for a feed in the Subscriptions list, then click the Unsubscribe link (as shown in Figure 6.17). To change the labels you've assigned to a feed, click the Edit link for the feed in the subscriptions list, and then delete, edit, or add new labels in the Labels box.

Sharing Your Favorite Postings

One of the cool features of Google Reader is that you can highlight the particular feeds you like and then share those feeds with friends and colleagues via Gmail. Here's how it works.

Start by "starring" a favorite feed. You do this by clicking the dimmed-out star next to a posting in the posting list; when you click the star, it displays in full color.
After you've starred your favorite feeds, click the Share link at the top of the main Google Reader page.
When the next page appears, click the label for the list you want to share.
When the next page appears, as shown in Figure 6.18 click the Send Email button

Figure 6.18. Sharing a feed via email.

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When the Gmail window shown in Figure 6.19 appears, enter the person's email address, edit the default text as you like, and then click the Send button.

Figure 6.19. Getting ready to email a favorite feed to friends and colleagues.

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Putting Your Favorite Feeds on Your Own Web Page

The other way you can share your favorite feeds is to put them on your own personal web page, in a feed box like the one shown in Figure 6.20. This requires a basic knowledge of HTML, of courseor at least access to your page's HTML code.

Tip

You can also email individual blog postings to anyone you like. From the main Google Reader page, select the posting, pull down the More Actions list, and then select Gmail This. When the Gmail window appears, enter the recipient's email address, make any edits you'd like, and then click the Send button.

Start by "starring" a favorite feed. You do this by clicking the dimmed-out star next to a posting in the posting list; when you click the star, it displays in full color.
After you've starred your favorite feeds, click the Share link at the top of the main Google Reader page.
When the next page appears, click the label for the list you want to share.
When the next page appears, move to the right column and enter a title for the list display, choose a color scheme, and select how many items you want to display.
If you want to display a reference back to the original blog, check the Show Item Sources option.
Click the Get Code Now! Button.
When the HTML code appears, copy it by selecting the entire listing and pressing Ctrl+C on your computer keyboard.
Open your HTML editor program, display the code for your personal web page, position the cursor where you want the listing box to appear, and then press Ctrl+V to paste the copied code into your web page code.

That's it. When you post your edited web page, the new listing box will be displayed, constantly updated with new posts from the blog you selected.