Google Reader

RSS, or really simple syndication, is a technology touted to drive how Internet users get their information from the Web. RSS basically consists of a machine-readable markup version of a webpage, consisting mostly only of entry titles and a summary. This way, without a website’s layout, graphics, and extra text, each transmission of a news article or blog entry takes only a little space and bandwidth. Also, being machine-readable, an RSS feed’s XML file can be understood and presented by an RSS reader in a multitude of ways.

Some popular email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, have served as early client-side RSS-reader software. But mobility concerns have made web-based RSS reader services more popular. And sites such as Bloglines and Kinja were built just for this purpose—they let you read your RSS feeds from any computer through a Web interface. What’s great is that you can even share your RSS subscriptions as a blogroll or as a collection of feeds, for other readers’ perusal.

Google has recently entered the feed reader game, with Google Reader (accessible via www.google.com/reader). Now Google Reader takes the game a step higher, with a Gmail-like interface consisting mostly of AJAX. This means you get up-to-date information from your blog and website subscriptions without having to refresh your browser window. And then you can actually “star” your favorite stories—the equivalent of bookmarking them on your browser, but in this case, the bookmark being saved on-site.

Here’s a brief rundown of what Google Reader has to offer:

• Google search – Google Reader has a built-in Google search box. And we all know how efficient Google’s search technology has become. This means you can search for keywords and relevant phrases within your subscribed feeds and from other websites or blogs you haven’t subscribed to yet.
• Reading list – Google Reader will monitor your feeds regularly for updates, and bring up the latest posts in your front page.
• Subscriptions – If you prefer to be updated of items from a certaing site or blog regularly, then you can add that site to your subscriptions into your reading list.
• Labels and stars – Very much like Gmail, Google Reader uses a labeling and starring system, which you can use to organize and identify your favorite articles and feeds.
• Sharing – This is a fairly recent feature. Google Reader now lets you share your feeds as links or clips on your blog or as publicly-viewable feeds (Google login not required).

Google Reader is still a fairly new service, and other RSS/feed readers are still on top of most people’s lists (you usually only use one such service), but I think it’s a formidable contender, especially with the Google branding.