Sharing RSS Feeds

From You're Using RSS Now...Right? by Chris Butler

Sharing RSS Feeds

Aside from its great interface and ease of use, Reader's killer feature is sharing ( ) . Sharing introduces a social aspect to Reader by allowing you to individually share articles with anyone via email, as well as tag any article to be shared with your existing Google contacts who use Reader. You'll be able to see these "friends" by looking at the top left of your Reader main page, under the heading "Friends shared items." You can view all of your friends' shared articles in chronological order, or you can click an individual friend's name and view only those articles he or she has shared.

By exploring your friends' shared articles, you'll likely discover new feeds that you'll want to subscribe to, which could be initially much more helpful than Readers "Top Recommendations" since you likely have more in common with your friends than an algorithm can replicate. Case in point: I recently found a blog kept by Jeremiah Owyang, a web strategist at Forrester Research, after it was referenced in an article I was reading. I checked it out and subscribed to his feed right away. Afterward, I instant messaged Eric, "have you heard of this guy?," to which he replied, "Yeah, I've been sharing posts of his in Reader for a while now." Needless to say, I've learned to trust my friends recommendations and pay attention to the social features in Reader.

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Chris | August 29, 2008 2:14 PM

Update (hat tip to Eric): Copyblogger has a good article titled "How to Read," which discusses the 4 levels of reading from Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book (in my library). Good stuff.

I love the conclusion:

"Reading, at its fundamental essence, is not about absorbing information. It’s about asking questions, looking for answers, understanding the various answers, and deciding for yourself. Think of reading this way, and you quickly realize how this allows you to deliver unique value to your readers as a publisher.

If you think all of this sounds like a lot of work, well… you’re right. And most people won’t do it, just like most people will never blog or publish online in the first place.

That’s why your readers need you. They need you to do the work for them, because they don’t want to become an expert. So, it’s your job to understand the complex and grasp the essentials, then make it simple, easy to read, and entertaining."

Steve | April 16, 2009 8:30 AM

Thanks for that primer. It still seems like it can absorb a lot of time to set up the subscriptions in the first place but at least you give a practical way to organise and sift through the overwhelming amount of information.