Google Reader Adds Much Needed Features

September 9, 2007 | Web Tools

I’m a huge fan of Google Reader. It allows me to read and keep up with a large amount of site and blogs, however it does have it’s drawbacks (mainly a lack of features that other readers have). I happy to say that Google has stepped up and added some much need features to Google Reader.

Google Reader Search

Feed Search
By far the most useful of the newly added features is the ability to search. Honestly, I don’t understand why this feature wasn’t there from the beginning. Searching is Google’s bread and butter and it’s included with every other Google product, so why not Reader?

Regardless of the reason it was originally left out, Google has now added the ability to search starred items, shared items, folders or individual subscriptions to Google Reader. Thank you Google!

Google Reader Navigation Hide

And that’s not all. Google has also made several other useful tweaks to their popular RSS Reader.

Hide Navigation
Google Reader now has the option to hide your navigation by clicking on the separator to the right of your navigation pane. A nice feature especially for those with limited screen real estate.

Increased Unread Count
The number of Unread Items goes from 100+ to 1000+. Useful for those of us who subscribe to ungodly number of RSS feeds.

Foward and Back Buttons
Google has added support for the browsers forward and back buttons, allowing you to navigate forward and backward through previously views feeds and folders. Personally, I’ve never tried using these buttons is Reader, but useful for some, I’m sure.

Digg Updates User Profiles and Site Policies
My Ultimate List of Wordpress Plugins
Upgrade WordPress Instantly… Almost.
Vizualize Your Readers with MyAvatars
Weekend Reading: October 20, 2007

If you enjoyed reading Average Joe Blogger why not subscribe to my RSS Feed or get it delivered directly to your email inbox.

6 Responses to “Google Reader Adds Much Needed Features”

Dorothy Stahlnecker | September 9th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

Nice site, I’m new and this is great information. Thanks for stopping by my site..

Dorothy from grammology
Dan | September 9th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t even realize those features had been added. I must have completely over looked them.
Nate (Average Joe Blogger) | September 10th, 2007 at 8:12 am

Dorothy: I’m glad you are finding the information here useful. Thanks for stopping by.

Dan: Honestly, it took me a few days to notice as well.
TenthOfMarch | September 13th, 2007 at 11:21 am

I assume the screenshot was taken from your account. You have over 1000+ unread posts? I don’t think you’ll ever finish reading them. Just click the “mark all as read” button and start fresh.
Pinyo | September 13th, 2007 at 3:57 pm

My count is pegged at 1000+; either I do not read enough or I subscribe to too many.

I definitely love the search feature!
Nate (Average Joe Blogger) | September 14th, 2007 at 7:28 am

TenthOfMarch: If you notice the majority of those unread posts are in the “Tech-Web2.0″ category. It’s a topic I’m interested in but also one that is difficult to keep up with. I rarely ever read them all and often just mark all of them as read.

Pinyo: I subscribe to too many and don’t read enough myself. If I only had more time. The search feature is fantastic.