WHAT IS GOOGLE READER?

Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. It was released by Google on October 7, 2005 through Google Labs. Reader graduated from beta status on September 17, 2007.

Users can subscribe to feeds using either Google Reader's search function, or by entering in the exact URL of the RSS or Atom feed. New posts from those feeds are then shown on the left-hand side of the screen. One can then order that list by date or relevance. Items can also be organized with labels, as well as being able to create "Starred Items" for easy access.

Items in Google Reader can be shared with other Web users. Previously this was done by sending a link through e-mail, directing the user to the shared article; or by creating a basic webpage that includes all shared items from a user's account.

In December 2007, Google changed the sharing policy so that items the user marked as shared were automatically visible to their Google Talk contacts.Users criticized this change because there is no way to opt out. The URL for a user's page of shared items contains a random string, and Google originally advertised this as a way to limit sharing to only those people to whom you give the address.