Download Squad

Google Reader's first version wasn't much to call home about. After the initial excitement about the fact that Google had released an RSS reader wore off, it became readily apparent that their initial entry simply wasn't ready for prime time. But then came the second coming.

Okay, dramatic words aside, the second version of Google Reader is so much better, that many prominent bloggers have publicly discussed having switched to it. If you follow more than a few feeds, you've probably noticed people talking about it. Google Reader's quickly becoming the "need to use" feed aggregator, and its big brother, Gmail, is a big part of that.

We've previously posted about a Greasemonkey script to combine Google Reader with Gmail. That version was written by a member of the Google Reader team, and is one of his many very useful Gmail-related Greasemonkey scripts. And while it's certainly good, Winston Yongwei felt that he could do better.

This new Greasemonkey script from Winston is better in many ways. It features a split-window view of your Gmail and Google reader on the same page (Gmail on top, Reader on bottom), links to collapse or expand either Gmail or Reader, the integrated Reader will use the start page as defined in Google Reader's settings for your account, it has a pull-down list to select which label you'd like to read, the 'v' hotkey will launch a Reader link in a new window and maintain your Gmail / Reader view, and Gmail and Reader views will automatically resize.

Now that's quite the list of features, and fortunately Gmail and Reader Integrator doesn't disappoint. If you're already using the Gmail / Reader integration we previously posted about, don't forget to disable it before installing this version.