Sue Waters

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Are You Going To Be More Sharing And Caring?

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…

Sue Waters
2 minutes
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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:

  1. Do I want to start caring about my friends and and making sure I share really good posts
  2. 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.

12 responses to “Are You Going To Be More Sharing And Caring?”

  1. Gary Barber Avatar
    Gary Barber

    humm don’t tend to use gtalk that much. So the facility was a bit sparse from my view point. People tend to be very private about their IM permissions I find

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  2. John Larkin Avatar
    John Larkin

    Hi Sue
    How are you? I am sharing posts from Google Reader.
    http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16977028431156038085
    These shared blog posts also appear on my blog’s sidebar.
    I have also created 7 blogroll folders that I am making public as well. I have used that tagged folder facility in Google Reader to create a page of blogrolls. I am not sure about the categories as yet.
    http://blog.larkin.net.au/blogroll/
    I have not set up a Google Talk account per se. I could share the urls of my shared items with anyone who is interested.
    Cheers
    John

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  3. Graham Wegner Avatar
    Graham Wegner

    Like John, my shared GReader items are now in my blog sidebar. It was time to dump the old-fashioned blogroll and show at a glance what was currently catching my eye. Now what I decide to share is directly influenced by the fact it is fulfilling the prior role of my blogroll.

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  4. Stephen Downes Avatar
    Stephen Downes

    This is very nteresting. I have long wanted to see a connection between people and resources. I don’t use Google Talk now but I may start it up to see the results.

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  5. Sue Waters Avatar
    Sue Waters

    I agree Gary — people do tend to limit their IM contact which I don’t blame them for however Gtalk now seems to add anyone who has a Gmail account to my Gtalk. Probably relates to the setting they are using. Also looks like it is adding peoples accounts automatically to Google Reader provided they have a Gmail account and Reader. So I have people shared items appearing in my Shared Items section of reader that I don’t talk, and have never talk to, using Gtalk.

    John it looks like the key will be if your Reader account is set up with a Gmail account which yours probably isn’t. This has definitely added a new twist to the whole sharing concept and may well impact on how we even share the links on our blog. Not sure but it will be an interesting few days working out the pros and cons of the impact. Shared tags work differently from Sharred items so another interesting dimension is added.

    Graham– it would be really good if use Google Reader to create our blogroll for our blog like John Larkin does. While the shared reader is nice — with John’s blog he is able to add the code into his side bar so has a really nice looking blogroll that changes as he adds and removes subscriptions.

    Stephen – I am thinking that the connection will be more that your Google Reader account sign is a gmail account rather than just people who you communicate with using Gtalk. But as the day progresses I will get a better indication. As I have commented above this could have some really interesting impacts on how people share the items and where their focus will be with sharing.

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  6. Kevin Gamble Avatar
    Kevin Gamble

    So far I’m safe. You are the only person on my list that shares. 🙂 I pretty much only use Gtalk when I’m hiding out. If that list grows I might have to reconsider.

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  7. Darren Draper Avatar
    Darren Draper

    Yes, what John and Graham and Stephen have said. Except that I do use Gtalk.

    Now one thing I do with Google Reader that I’ve found to work very well is to SHARE the posts I like (they’re displayed on my blog as well) and to STAR the posts I will likely write about.

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  8. Ralph Poole Avatar
    Ralph Poole

    I don’t use google talk much, but I wish I did. I think this sounds like a great feature! Certainly it will require more reading but, as others have said, having others scan articles for you has appeal. I would like others to sort through the multiforous and tell me what I should read.

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  9. John Maklary Avatar
    John Maklary

    Sue,

    I JUST started playing with this new feature. It definitely will make me think about what to share and what to star. I think Darren differentiates well between them. Share to, well… share and Star for further reflection later.

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  10. susan Avatar
    susan

    I’ve been sharing for quite a while on my blog sidebar. It’s a great way to pass around the best of the best.

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  11. » Tips for Diversifying Your Blog Subscriptions Mobile Technology in TAFE

    […] 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. My friends all share radically different posts — all far removed from the types of posts I would normally read. […]

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