Informational on Google Reader and its Features

Google Reader is a news and blog aggregator that can read RSS and Atom feeds online or offline that was launched by Google on October 2005. Users may subscribe to feeds by entering in the URL of the Atom or RSS feed, or by utilizing Google Reader’s search function.

Google Reader provides an opening page that displays new items. Those items can be organized by date or relevance or organized by labels. They can be “starred” for quick access. Users can choose between a list view or expanded view, that is, displayed by title only or title and description. In the expanded view, items are automatically marked as they are scrolled past.

With the installation of Google Gears, up to 2000 items can be downloaded to be read offline. Once back online, the feeds are updated by Google Reader. Reader allows for feeds to be displayed on iGoogle, a personalized homepage, and feed recognition is included in Mozilla Firefox.

With Google Desktop, the Google Reader gadget can be used to combine all feeds and track them from the desktop. The gadget will automatically update new items that can be clicked and expanded to a larger view where the preview can be viewed, starred, shared or emailed.

Feeds can be shared with others individually or in custom bundles. Feed subscriptions and folders can be added to the bundle along with a title and description. Reader offers sharing functions that automatically share feeds and bundles with designated Reader friends. Bundles can be emailed and posted to blogs as well.

Google Reader can be used on mobile devices that support WAP 2.0 or XHTML. There is a version for iPhone users also.