Tag: feeds

The return of the categories

Once again it has been proven how unstable and messy I am in my data organization.  This blog already went through a few iterations of categories, tags, and sections reorganizations.  However, it seems this not the end just yet.

I have decided to bring back the categories.  They were chopped into pieces last time when tags came along.  But tags are way too flexible and messy when I have no strict rules on how to apply  them.  So I ended up with a whole lot of tags which looks, sound, and spell very similar, but not exactly the same.  Hopefully, there will be more order with categories now. I intend to use categories in conjunction with tags.  Categories will be few and major, while tags will be more flexible and many.

Also, this will provide for an easier access for those of you who come here to read certain types of posts (Personal and not Technology, or Movies and not Blogging).  If you are interested in everything, then there is a category All for you.

P.S.: Note that for each category there is an RSS feed, which should be picked up by your browser or feed reader auto-discovery feature.

Google Reader search within single feed

I’ve been using Google Reader for quite some time now, but it was only today that I noticed that I can search within a single feed.  The drop down menu near the search box at the top contains choices like “All items”, “Starred items”, and “Shared items”, which are followed by the tags.  But if you scroll further down, after the tags, there is a list of all your subscriptions.  You can pick any feed that you are subscribed to and search within it.

I’m not sure if this is a recently added feature or if it was there for ever, but it’s priceless.  I was missing out on it, because I use way too many tags and, apparently,  never scrolled down deep enough.

A little RSS reading tip

ReadWriteWeb runs 2007 : The Year in RSS post. Nice read. Among other things it has this little tip:

For some crazy reason the world is full of people who still feel morally obligated to read every single item in their feed reader. These people, probably the majority of RSS users in fact, complain that RSS is becoming a big source of information overload. (Hint: it’s ok! Just read what you can and don’t worry about the rest!)

Passing forward with Google Reader

One of the cool things that can be done with the Google Reader (now that it integrates with Gtalk contacts), is proxying of items from one set of people to another via a common connection.  Consider, for example, my contact list with Person A and Person B, both of who don’t know each other, but share a common interest.  Person A is subscribed to Mega Feed RSS, which neither me, nor Person B is subscribed to.  One day there is a really cool post in the Mega Feed RSS, which Person A markes as “shared”.  Since Person A is in my contact list and I decided to see his shared items too, that item will popup in my Google Reader.  I’ll read it, and then decide that it is indeed a great post which some of my other contacts might be interested in.  Instead of annoying them all with an email, I’ll just mark it as “Shared” in my Google Reader, and this item will appear in Person B’s items from friends.

Here are the nice parts of the above process:

  • One news channel for everything – your news, and news from your friends.  No mixing of RSS items with emails and IMs.
  • No data duplication.  We don’t copy-paste and send the item over and over again.  Instead, we just share the same piece of data.
  • Control of the incoming streams in user hands.  If you don’t like the items someone is sharing, just “hide” the user via “Settings”.  Nobody is annoying anybody.
  • People in your contact list help you find the sources and content that you might be interested in.

Google Reader and Google Talk integrated. Sort of.

Google Reader has been recently integrated with Google Talk.  Somewhat.  If you use Google Reader and Google Talk, and you have some buddies in your Google Talk contact list, who also use Google Reader, then from now on you will be able to see each other’s shared items.  Through the “Settings“, you can control who you want and don’t want to see in the “Friends’ shared items“.

This is a really nice piece of functionality.  First of all, it saves you all the effort of finding and subscribing to “Shared items” RSS feeds of all your friends one by one.   Secondly, it helps to highlight interesting stuff from your buddies, even those that you might accidentally omitted from your subscriptions.

So, what am I missing there?  Two things.

First, the option to rename buddies.  I am blessed with contacts who choose all sorts of nicknames and avatars.  I prefer real names.  And I attach real face pictures to all my contacts whenever I can.  And I’ve done it in my Gmail contacts.  That information should be used for the Google Reader friends list.

Secondly, I need an option to enter a discussion with my friends regarding an item in my Google Reader.  That can be something I have shared, or that can be something my friends shared.  I want a “discuss in chat” and “discuss in email” buttons.  “Discuss in email” should be, in this case, different from “Email this item”.  We both (me, and the friend with who I’m entering a discussion) have read the item.  We just need a reference, like a subject, and URL to the item (original article?), just in case we need to run through it again or quote something.

While the second point is harder to implement (requires user studies, interface cluttering, etc), I’m really surprised that the first one wasn’t done.