Googlified

Google launched a modified version of Google Reader yesterday, especially for the Wii, to “feed your television“.

Wii is the best, according to Google Suggest. (Wii, not weed)

The Google Reader team continues to improve the usability of the online feed-aggregator. When you click on Email link under the item you want to share with your friends, the new update integrates the Gmail composition page into Google Reader that allows you to add additional message to feed item you want to share. It uses your contact info in Gmail that enables email auto-complete.

There’s also a minor update that Google adds a link to the “Home” section of Google Reader and a link to the “All items” section after the “No more items” message.

Many people complained about the lack of  tag* renaming feature in Google Reader. Sure, there is no direct way, but a simple get around would do the trick, and this is how you do it:

1. Go to the Settings page of Google Reader
2. Enter the tag name you want to change in the input field that labeled “Filter by name, tag, or URL” (right side of the page)
3. Click “Select: All {number} subscriptions” (left side of the page, right under the “Subscription” tab)
4. Create a new tag under one of the feeds in “Change folders” (find “New folder…”)
5. Go to “More actions…” and choose the tag you just created under “Add tag…”
6. Go to “More actions…” again and click the old tag that you don’t want, under “Remove tag…” to remove the tag
7. See it in action if you don’t get it (video)

That’s it, six steps aren’t much, you can do it under a minute. If you know a better way to rename the tags in Google Reader, let us know.

*Google has different names for the tagging feature: tags, labels, and folders, probably more

The Google Reader for Personalized Home Page gets a few updates yesterday in reaction to the users’ suggestions, Mihai Parparita posts at the Official Google Reader Blog.

• A “mark all as read” link so you can more easily catch up
• Unread counts for your reading list and tags
• Better support for themes
• The ability to sort items oldest-first

I am still a big fan of the full interface Google Reader. :)

Google Reader has got some new buttons for “Mark all as read”, “Refresh”, “View settings”, “Feed settings” and the “Add” button that shows up when you click on “Add subscription”.

The new buttons replaced the links that was once there, making it easier to click, and easier to see (distracting).

I guess the links next to the “Refresh” button on the sidebar changed to “Show: updated - all” instead of “All subscriptions: [only list updated] / Updated subscription: [list all]“. This doesn’t bother me as much as the new buttons.

Maybe it will take sometime for me to get used to it, but for now, I am pretty uncomfortable with it. (Oh, my eye itches!)