This post is an add-on to the previous post Don't Slouch At The Dinner Table.  I'm posting an updating because one of the features that I quickly glossed over has been upgraded, and is starting to be quite useful.  I'm referring to the Like feature, and in this post I'll tell you how it has been upgraded to be quite a useful tool.

If you've logged into Google Reader lately, you might have noticed a new section at the top of the left column.  This section, Explore, adds a bit of relevant exploration to Google Reader.  The topmost link within the Explore section is Popular Items, then below that is a revolving list of 4 out of a total of 20 feeds that might be of interest to you. Finally, there is a View all recommendations link which brings you to the total 20 feeds that you might be interested in based on your current set of feeds.

Popular Items

When you click on this link, the right side of the page displays a list of posts that are most-liked based on the ever-increasing list of algorithms that Google has up its sleeve.  There's a note at the top of the list of posts that reads "These are items from the Internet that you might enjoy. Hit the smiley face at the bottom of items that you like -- we'll customize your list to help you discover even more stuff."

These popular items are personally created for each Google Reader user.  They're generated based on what you've been reading, what you've been liking, what you've been starring, as well as how your behavior compares to global activity.

Recommended Sources

The Recommended Sources list is pretty useful because it pushes the "let the internet come to you" method of web browsing one step further.  Google shows you four feeds that you might be interested in but aren't subscribed to yet - so, sites you likely haven't visited before (because who goes to a website twice when you can just subscribe to the feed?).

To view the full list of twenty recommended feeds, you can click the View all recommendations link just below the four listed.  This list displays how many subscribers there are for each feed listed & approximately how many posts there are per week.  It also provides you with a Subscribe or No Thanks option below the feeds title & short description.  These links function in a "yay or nay" type action.  The No Thanks link removes the feed from the list of recommended sources, and the Subscribe link does just that.

The way that the Recommended Sources is generated is pretty interesting, as well... It factors in the feeds that you're already subscribed to along with your Web History & your location and it compares this to many other users.  This creates similarities in reading patterns, and I like Google's explanation:

"For instance, if a lot of people subscribe to feeds about both peanut butter and jelly, and you only subscribe to feeds about peanut butter, Reader will recommend that you try some jelly."

Related posts:

1. Don’t Slouch At The Dinner Table
2. Contemplate Consuming The Internet
3. How To Use Neat Stuff

Google Reader has Like and Share features built in that let me do more than simply read posts.  The Like and Share features allow me to tell others about interesting things I find on the internet.  I use these two features quite a bit...

I think the Like feature is a bit of a dead-end organizational feature at the moment - whatever is Liked is categorized into an unshared pile of posts that are marked "Liked", and it's actually a bit useless on its own (at the moment anyway).  I use it anyway, though - partly because I'm a freak about Google products, partly because it can be a useful organizational tool to quickly access posts that I found most interesting, and partly because of the feature's potential (should Google decide to add to it).

So, if I really enjoy a post, I'll use the Like feature as well as the Share feature.  The Share feature categorizes the post into an RSS feed of its own that is shared based on certain settings.  I've got it configured so that everything I Share is open for anyone to read right here.  Plus, it's really easy for me, because I'm right there reading the post that I enjoy where I can also click a single button to share it (or click a single button & type some text if I want to comment on it as well).  The action of sharing becomes an almost passive action; being able to share right from where I'm reading without taking extra steps or going away from the reading page makes it easy and enjoyable.  (StumbleUpon does a great job at ease-of-use, as well, but I'll be talking more about that in other posts.)

I don't care for that direct Google Reader shared items feed, though.  It's all alone; it's another place; it's yet another neighborhood (more on the idea of Many Places At Once / Many Neighborhoods in another post).  So, yeah, sure, it's great for other Google Reader users, but what about the people on my blog, or the people on Twitter, or the people on FriendFeed?  I have to do a little setup work to get those things running smoothly...

If you haven't checked it out yet, go have a look at my Lifestream (essentially my own personal FriendFeed).  This is a collection of posts from nearly every online presence that I have, and it takes absolutely zero effort to produce.  Both FriendFeed and my Lifestream are automatically updated whenever I Share something from Google Reader, no more complicated than that.

The leftover part, however, is getting my shared Google Reader posts into Twitter.  For that, I use TwitterFeed which subscribes to my Google Reader Shared Items feed and automatically post Shares.  Since Twitter limits posts to 140 characters, TwitterFeed shortens the URL that's shared with bit.ly (but only because it doesn't support Su.pr) - but that's getting a bit ahead of myself, so I'll write more on URL shorteners and the great service that is Su.pr in other posts...

That brings it full circle - I can post directly to my Lifestream and Twitter simply by reading posts via Google Reader and clicking a single button for the things that interest me.  This is the easiest method that I've found to share interesting posts that are always relevant.

Related posts:

1. Relevant Exploration Through Google Reader
2. Contemplate Consuming The Internet
3. Stumbling Down The Information Superhighway

Don't waste time revisiting websites over & over - have them delivered to you!  Subscribe to a site's RSS feed (like mine), so you don't have to travel all over the internet to stay up to speed.  Instead of going from website to website reading them individually, you'll have the updates delivered to you in a single easy to manage location.

To do this, you'll need a feed reader - my reader of choice is Google Reader.  It allows you to do more than simply consume information - you get to share everything, and comment on it as well (you'll hear more on that in later posts).  There's also a mobile version of the site, so you can pick up where you left off - anywhere you go.

Here's a quick guide on how to subscribe to a site's RSS feed:

1. Go sign up for an account to use Google Reader
2. Visit a website; we'll use my site as an example
3. In the address bar, click the RSS icon that looks like this
4. Select the "RSS 2.0" entry from the menu that contains different "Subscribe to" options
5. Click on the "Subscribe Now" button in the bland page you were taken to
6. Click the "Add to Google Reader" button in Google's page which is asking how to subscribe

Now that you know what you're doing - go ahead and subscribe to all of your frequently visited sites...

After you subscribe to more & more RSS feeds, you might find that you need to start organizing your collection.  Here's a screen shot of my freshly-read Google Reader screen (it doesn't happen often!), which consists of about 150 subscriptions sorted into about a dozen folders:

Related posts:

1. Don’t Slouch At The Dinner Table
2. Relevant Exploration Through Google Reader
3. Stumbling Down The Information Superhighway