Official Google Reader Blog: Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

Google Reader is bringing in some changes that will aid you in locating more interesting content than you already have discovered. When Google launched the Personalized Search in 2005, we were skeptical because we were worried about personal information. But we came to realize that it helped us in our searches.
Now the same search feature is helping you with your reading habits, that you do with your Google Reader.
The Explore section helps you find new content, with the two new features Popular items and recommended sources, which uses your Reader Trends and Web History (if you're opted into Web History) to generate a list of feeds we think you might like.
Personalized Ranking will help you with sorting your articles, using "Sort by Magic" under the Feed Settings menu in your reader. The traditioanl sort options are still there but better because it is based on your reading and sharing habits. If you try these out, please let the them know about how you feel about them on Reader help group, Twitter or the Reader section of Get Satisfaction, a third party support community.
Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking
Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

Your Feeds "Talks" To You, If They Are On Android

Yes there is an App for that, certainly on Android based phones. So Android users now can listen to their news out loud while your hands are busy to handle phone.
Or just take the case of the author of the article and the app, Stephane Doyon,that I have pointed at the bottom, who is blind.

The Talking RSS Reader does the task via text-to-speech library adapted from android eyes-free project, helping mobile phoning for visually impaired. Sometimes I am amazed at what a mind could do to solve simple tasks ans this is one of them! Here are some facts about the App from the project page.

It begins reading each article out loud as soon as it is displayed. The sentence currently being spoken is colored in green.
Speech can be interrupted and restarted by pressing the CALL button.
To move to the previous or next sentence, spin the trackball up or down while the app is talking.
If the text is scrolled, speech will pick up at the first full sentence from the top of the screen.
Links can be selected with the finger, or trackball when the app is not talking. Clicking a link launches the browser, which does not talk.
You can have sentences spoken one at a time by holding the CALL button and spinning the trackball up or down.
The Next and Prev article buttons are located at the bottom corners of the screen, where they can easily be tapped without looking. Each article is marked as read after you click Next.
If you are a first time user of Google Reader, you may need to initialize your account by going to http://google.com/reader.

Google Open Source Blog: Talking RSS Reader for Android

Feedburner Subscriber Status Might Change, Starting Today.

Google Feedfetcher, one that keeps an eye on subscribers to feeds on behalf of Google Reader and the iGoogle has shaken up it's dust and updated it's database after a long period of inactivity.
So this update could take you Feedburner subscriber count will reflect this change which could either be up or down.
Feedburner folks assure us that the changes will begin to show up in feedburner subscriber counts starting today, 26th of September.

Google Sidewiki, Anotate Me Please!

Google released Google Sidewiki today. Sidewiki allows one to;

• Publish helpful information
  about any web page right in your browser
• Read insights in context
  from Sidewiki entries added by others
• Share Sidewiki entries through
  Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Google profiles 

There is a link to learn more after the jump.


Learn more about sidewiki

Blogger Joins the Hubbub Via The PubSubHubbub Protocol

We have been working with the PubSubHubbub protocol for a while now to adopt it for Feedotopia. Now that Blogger has adopted it, we will have instant updates from millions of blogs under Blogger wing.
Basically the PubSubHubbub protocol turns web feeds in to real time streams and as developers adopt the protocol, feeds will appers in readers in near real time.
Google Reader, my favorite reader has also implemented PubSubHubbub. You can find a link to at the bottom of this article.

The protocol in a nutshell is as follows:

• An feed URL (a "topic") declares its Hub server(s) in its Atom or RSS XML file, link rel="hub" ... . The hub(s) can be run by the publisher of the feed, or can be a community hub that anybody can use. (Atom and RssFeeds are supported)

• A subscriber (a server that's interested in a topic), initially fetches the Atom URL as normal. If the Atom file declares its hubs, the subscriber can then avoid lame, repeated polling of the URL and can instead register with the feed's hub(s) and subscribe to updates.

• The subscriber subscribes to the Topic URL from the Topic URL's declared Hub(s).

• When the Publisher next updates the Topic URL,, via. the publisher software pings the Hub(s) saying that there's an update.

• The hub efficiently fetches the published feed and multicasts the new/changed content out to all registered subscribers.

The protocol is decentralized and free. No company is at the center of this controlling it. Anybody can run a hub, or anybody can ping (publish) or subscribe using open hubs.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger Joins the Hubbub
Official Google Reader Blog: PubSubHubbub support for Reader shared items

Tags: feedotopia, PubSubHubbub protocol, Atom, RSS

DIGG Bans Laughing Squid

According to Laughing Squid, DIGG has blocked the popular blog without reason or warning. We like LS, both the blog and the hosting company.
Hope this get resolved soon!

Tags: DIGG, Laughing Squid

NewsGator Adopts Google Reader As Its Online COmpanion

RSS Readers
From Agust 31, Google Reader will become the online vehicle for NewsGator. News Gator has announced that Googlr Reader will be the companion and the synchronization platform for its RSS Reader applications. NewsGator has FeedDemon, for Windows and NetNewsWire, for the Mac as RSS readers. It also has an iPhone App, NetNewsWire for the iPhone, one of the favorite nes readers.
New versions of FeedDemon and NetNewsWire are available as of today, NewsGator mentions NetNewsWire for iPhone will be available soon.
If you need any futher encouragement, following paragraph will give you plenty;
"Users of FeedDemon, NetNewsWire for Mac, and NetNewsWire for the iPhone will have 30 days to download new versions of these applications that can synchronize with Google Reader. Syncing will give you a consistent reading experience across your PC, Mac, iPhone, and web browser. For example, if you add a new RSS feed, organize your folders, or mark some stories as read on one device, the changes will immediately reflect across the others. Users of NewsGator Go! can select from the mobile RSS reader options that synchronize with Google Reader."
NewsGator

Tags: iPhone App, NetNewsWire for the iPhone, RSS Reader, FeedDemon, google reader, NetNewsWire, newsgator

Party with Blogger & Google Reader At South By SouthWest (SXSW)

Google Buzz just announced that it is going to host a party together with Google reader team at the SXSW and if you are attending, check out the venue at Six Lounge (117 W 4th St @ Colorado) on Sunday,
Blogger Buzz: Blogger & Google Reader Party @ SXSW

Tags: Google, Google blogger, google reader, SXSW

Transfer FeedBurner Accounts to Google Accounts, More Info

Google Adsense for Feeds blog has published following information as of February 28th 2009, people will have problems managing accessing Feedburner accounts, if care is not taken. Simply create a google account and information is availale after the jump.

• The FeedBurner functionality of analyzing, optimizing, publicizing, and monetizing your feeds is not being shut down or reduced in any way. We have made some strategic decisions to remove some of our functionality that is not directly relevant to managing feeds for reasons we hope will become apparent over time. Names may change, things may move around, but in general our plan is to provide a lot more functionality that makes sense in 2009, and beyond, for all publishers. Learn more here.



• On February 28th, if you have not moved your feeds to a Google Account, the traffic to your feeds will not be cut off or terminated, but you will not be able to view or manage your feeds until you have moved to a Google Account, unless you use MyBrand. Technically, this means that all traffic will now be served out of our Google data centers, and there will still be a way to move your account that will be in place indefinitely.



• If you used MyBrand at www.feedburner.com, you absolutely must move to a Google account and update your DNS CNAME records by March 16, 2009, or else your MyBrand URLs will return a 404 error. If you use MyBrand and have not moved, you should have already received an email from us with detailed instructions. If, for some reason, you have changed the email address associated with your FeedBurner account, you will receive another message once you have finished the move process to the email address associated with your Google Account.

Transferring FeedBurner Accounts to Google Accounts FAQ

Tags: Google Adsense for Feeds, FeedBurner, FeedBurner Accounts

Feedly, As Explained By Robert Scoble

Feedly brings together Google Reader, friendfeed, twitter, and anything else to bring you a better and bigger News source. Robert Scoble spoke with Feedly CEO Edwin Khodabakchian and prests us how the newest incarnation of the application works. Get Feedly here.

Tags: Feedly, feed aggregation, Google Reader, friendfeed, twitter