Google Reader Quick Tips

Sunday, July 27 2008 12 Comments

#1 – Read Upwards

I like to read my feeds grouped by feed, oldest first.  Scroll down to the last post in the list and press “K” to read upwards from there.  “J” does the opposite & reads downwards.  This is especially useful for busy feeds like Slashdot or Lifehacker, where there are easily 50 posts to read in a day.

#2 – Next/Previous Feed

When using the method above, it’s useful to use Shift+N or Shift+P to navigate to next previous subscription.  This keeps your fingers on the keyboard instead of reaching for the mouse.

#3 – More Screen Real-Estate

If you need more space for reading, press “U” to hide the left column.  Pressing “U” will get it back again.

#4 – Open In-line

If you want to comment on a post (or just click through to see what the site looks like), you can open the post’s original site within the google reader pane.  Just CTRL-Click the title of the post.

#5 – Ninja Mode

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

No, I’m not kidding on this one.

#6 – On-screen help

Press Shift+? to see a nice layout of all the keyboard shortcuts available to you.

 

What’s your favorite Google Reader tip?

#1 Matt Hinze avatar
Matt Hinze
7.27.2008
4:20 PM

I like to do things much the same way.. by feed (or folder in some cases), oldest first, j-ing through the river of news.You can sort by oldest and have oldest posts on top.I usually do a lot of "middle clicking" in Firefox or, if I am keyboarding, using the 'v' shortcut.I accumulate a ton of browser tabs and use that to guide my reading later.The only other thing I do is group into folders by priority.


#2 Ben Scheirman avatar
Ben Scheirman
7.27.2008
4:53 PM

Sweet didn't, now about the sorting tip.That will definitely be my default now.That's not a bad idea about the folder of priority.There's a lot of feeds I jump to as soon as I see a post.How do you arrange them?Must-Read, Should-Read, Might-Read?


#3 Nick Parker avatar
Nick Parker
7.27.2008
5:05 PM

I use the g + u sometimes to filter directly to a specific subscription, or g + t to go to a folder/tag.If you really enjoy using the keyboard for your web surfing, check out Vimperator for Firefox, I've got a write up here (http://developernotes.com/post/Vim-2b-Firefox-3d-Vimperator.aspx).


#4 David Mohundro avatar
David Mohundro
7.27.2008
8:43 PM

Nice tips!Another that I'd share is that you can also open the current item in a new window/tab with the 'V' shortcut - assuming of course that you have popups allows on Google.


#5 Kyle Baley avatar
Kyle Baley
7.28.2008
12:08 AM

A couple: I use AutoHotKey with Win+H to launch Google Reader (Win+G opens GMail)As soon as it opens, g+a to go to all unread items, then J, K to navigate 'twixt the postsInstall Better Reader plug-in for GreaseMonkey on Firefox. It's not nearly as functional as the Better Gmail 2 one but includes a skin that gives you more screen real estate. Also has some other nice features that escape me now because I'm forced to use my work laptop which is still IE6.


#6 Matt Hinze avatar
Matt Hinze
7.28.2008
7:12 AM

@Ben re: priority folders* Friends* Pers (non-friends but of only personal interest - usually topical non-tech)* High (if it goes bold I will click it now)* Daily (usually ends up being like High, but I know I can leave it for later if I'm busy)* Junk (mostly search results and other high traffic feeds)* Dead (an attempt to keep organized - if I realize a feed has no recent posts I put it here hoping to eventually delete it, if a post shows up here I try to prioritize it)* Low (gets viewed as a folder and mostly in list view)the other way I've done it is three folders: Junk, Pers, and Prof.Sometimes I wish I still had this setup, I have Google Reader open all day and usually end up doing everything "by eye" - in other words, I'll mentally change a priority of a feed without moving folders, breaking my own arbitrary workflow.But I like the priority hierarchy.. it works okay.I also use "Star" ('s' keyboard shortcut) a lot for longer, interesting items.. Then I use the mobile interface to read starred items (the nav is easy) when I'm AFK.


#7 Bembeng Arifin avatar
Bembeng Arifin
7.28.2008
8:41 AM

1. Use space bar to scroll the the items by page view, I find it easier for reading lengthy posts.2. Shift+S to share interesting posts3. A -> Quick subscribe 4. L -> Add Tags


#8 Robz avatar
Robz
7.28.2008
11:37 PM

WTF on the Ninja mode?! That is awesome!Where did you learn about that one?


#9 Ben Scheirman avatar
Ben Scheirman
7.28.2008
11:39 PM

I think I picked that up from Lifehacker.Not 100% sure though.


#10 Robz avatar
Robz
7.29.2008
12:00 AM

Possibly. ferventcoder.com/.../wtf-mate-ninja-


#11 Scott avatar
Scott
8.05.2008
12:23 PM

use v to open the currently selected item in a new windowshift_j and shift_k will move the selection highlight between feeds without actually opening them, then you can use shift_o to open.This is useful when you have feeds with no new items between feeds with new items.shift_a to mark all items read.use this for when you didn't check greader for 2 days and ayende posted 3000 items.If you use vimperator (I LOVE vimperator but it does have some issues) use ctrl+Q to stop vimperator command interception and use native greader shortcuts.so my usage is typically scan a feeed with j, v open anything I want to read further in a new tab, and move on, then I read all my open tabs.


#12 Chris Lang avatar
Chris Lang
8.22.2008
3:19 PM

Scoble actually predicted a Google Reader social bookmarking engine in 2006.You can now add friends to your friends list, share feed items, bookmark single blog posts from blogs that you read on the web and here’s the kicker, there is now a blog recommendation engine that recommends blogs you do not read by what your friends list is subscribed to in their Google Readers.Then, everything you share and bookmark in Google Reader of course comes up on your Google shared items page linked to by your Google profile.What really blew me away was the recommendation engine. If you add as many of your email list subscribers as you can to your Google Reader you can get a real good idea of what other blogs your subscribers are reading.The links in your shared items are all HTML and fully followed so every time one of your RSS subscribers shares a blog post it is creating incoming links to your site.Better yet, it uses the exact blog post title you wrote so now your links use your keyword phrases and bookmarkers can’t change your title tag.After talking to my SEO top dog contacts, they were all floored and assured me this is the new SEO tactic that no one knows about.http://www.keywebdata.com/?p=136It is kind of hard to add friends, the easiest way is to send a chat invite from Gmail and then email your contact you want to friend and have them email you back. It seems Google wants a two way conversation before they will allow you to become mutual friends.If you would like to friend me, add chrislang at gmail.com to your Google Gmail chat and send me an email letting me know so I can return an email to you, thereby creating a two way connection in Google.Google is quietly rolling this out behind the scenes but it is a full blown social bookmarking application and the blog recommendation engine is the new blog marketing strategy.One thing I have not quite figured out is if using FeedBurner now hurts you since the links point at the FeedBurner redirect rather than your site like a WordPress feed does.