Twitter from Google Reader easily with Treader

Google Reader has many merits, one of them being the fact that you can share the stories you like with your friends, contacts, and website visitors. It hasn’t been very long since Google added the possibility of adding comments to the shared item. There are other ways of sharing your favorite articles directly from Google Reader though, you can distribute them using Twitter.

There is an awesome tool that makes Tweeting your favorite articles a whole lot easier: Treader. Although the name choice isn’t the most inspired one I’ve ever seen, the actual tool is worth a few happy Tweets! Treader has been around for a little while, giving us a chance to see all the praise it has gathered over time.

Installing Treader

For Treader to work you need to install Greasemonkey first. Only once you’ve done that, you should install Treader. Once it’s all done, you need to reload Google Reader before you can use it. By hitting shift+T, the item you selected in GReader will be distributed through Twitter. Of course, the first time you will need to enter your Twitter info to log in.

Twitter has grown from a service that reminded me of type of public instant messaging, to a tool people are using in many different creative ways. If you are using Twitter as a business tool, and you already follow news relevant to your industry using Google Reader, imagine how easy it can be to be even more visible to your Twitter followers? I can also see this as being a great way to selectively Tweet only a selection of your own blog articles, instead of all of them automatically using RSS (As I do, which you can see if you are following me on Twitter).

Treader vs. Sharing on Google Reader

Treader was developed before you could insert comments with the articles you share on Google Reader, and it is mentioned on the site that this is one reason to use Treader: to insert a comment with the article you want to share with others. I think there is a definitely place and time for both Treader and the Google Reader sharing function. For example, there are certain articles I would want to share with close family members or friends, because I know it suits their particular interests. They may not be articles I want to Tweet far and wide. For example, some ‘how to’ articles that relate to something recently discussed in person or involves a somewhat personal topic would not be a candidate for Treader use. Instead, I would still stick to just sharing it on Google Reader.

Without a doubt, Treader has a time and place. When you are ready to share a great (blog) article with the entire world, Tweet it straight from Google Reader!