Completely out of nowhere, Google has launched Google Reader, a web-based news aggregator. As one would expect, Reader is full of AJAX goodness and is more than a little bit reminiscent Gmail. Right at the top of the screen is a box where you can search for new feeds, which I presume is powered by the same data that drives Google Blog Search, and you can tag your feeds (though, like in Gmail, Google calls them "Labels") and star individual posts a la Gmail. A web-based RSS reader is an obvious move for Google, given the integrated RSS reader in Google Personalized Home and Gmail's Web Clips, but I would have expected Google to integrate Google Reader directly into Gmail.
Update: Head over to to the Unofficial Google Weblog to read Brad Hill's excellent, in-depth review of Google Reader.
Via Waxy.org.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-07-2005 @ 2:38PM
glitch p-udding said...
they'll integrate it with gmail later. it's too beta to stick in their yet, and they have to worry about 50 year olds who are just getting used to their new gmail accounts and who's minds might explode if there's suddenly a feed reader in there, too.
it'll be like what happened with google maps and google local the other day.
_
glitch p-udding
worship the glitch
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10-07-2005 @ 4:24PM
Mark said...
Hmm. seems as though the server is being bombarded with requests, because my browser isn't loading it!
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10-07-2005 @ 5:49PM
Nik said...
I love it!!
But there is a weird delay... Have a look at the DownloadSquad feed - it is almost 5pm EST but only articles posted before 2pm EST are being shown...
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10-07-2005 @ 9:03PM
NOlo said...
It looks great, but somehow I am not able to import my feeds from sage or from bloglines, it says they are in wrong format.... :(
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10-08-2005 @ 5:25PM
NA said...
I imported around 90 feeds from bloglines. Took almost 15 minutes. A bit slow, but it will probably get better slowly.
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10-10-2005 @ 5:14AM
steveholt said...
It is to my great shame that I still prefer start.com to anything else. How can I like something out of MS? Come on, Google, anyone, please do something better!
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10-13-2005 @ 10:32AM
L'Emmerdeur said...
Most people use news readers at work. As many companies block email websites like Gmail, they would shoot themselves in the foot if they integrated them.
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