Depending on your love of Google Reader you will either be grateful that Google has given us an early Christmas present or be concerned, like me, that you may need to change your sharing habits. For those who don’t use Google Reader, or who have no idea what I am talking about, Google has linked Reader with Google Talk so now all your shared items will be visible to your friends from Google Talk, and vice versa.
You will have the option to choose which friends you link with and to invite more. Plus the option to clear your shared items.
This is definitely one of the biggest changes that Google Reader has made and it will impact of how we use our Readers. Not everyone in the blogosphere is impressed with this feature with posts warning of further information overload and duplications of posts. from friends.
My thoughts are I will need to seriously rethink how I use the Sharred feature of Google Reader because it is a feature I have totally ignored because I have not been interested in using it. Now I have to make the decision:
- Do I want to start caring about my friends and and making sure I share really good posts
- Or share nothing using Google Reader instead use blogging to link to posts I really want to share
FINAL THOUGHT
Refer to my posts on Getting more out of Google reader and Update on Getting more out of Google Reader for information on using Reader effectively.
If you are currently using Google Reader please let me know your thoughts on the integration of Reader with Google Talk — how will it change what you do? Is it a good or bad feature?
Also I am aware that many of my readers don’t use Google Reader — so please tell me more about your Feed Reader because I would be interested in learning how you get the most out of your Reader.
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