@Speedmaster:

There is an option to export an OPML file at Yahoo and that file can be imported at Google reader.

Apollo L

like gakera says... you don't have to share these notes publicly.

Actually, I'm thrilled about this (the non-public part, which seems less interesting). I use Google Reader to keep track of multiple academic journals, and news clippings related to my research, and also websites I need to check out and explore further. It has become a kind of "to do" space for me and keeps me very organized.

So if I can add websites and links that aren't RSS feed-driven to things I need to do, this just makes it more useful.

Yay!

geekgrrl77

I like it. I never thought Google notebook was usefull, since ... well I didn't use it that much. Google reader is such an integrated part of my routine - this I will use.
You don't have to share your notes with your "friends" on Reader, you select which ones you want to share. You have to 'opt out' of sharing, meaning it's enabled by default.

gakera

Theres no ability to have a conversation with comment replies amongst friends. Fail.

Rajio

I like Google reader, but I have about 100 RSS feeds on 5 tabs in my.yahoo.com that I would need to import, and I don't want to do it by hand. Anyone know a way to import them all from Yahoo to Google? Thanks!

Speedmaster

This new functionality finally makes Google Reader notes a viable alternative to del.icio.us for me. If only there was a way to sync the two.

Apollo L

@Speedmaster: "settings" in google reader (top-right of page), then "import/export". There's a browse button to find the opml file.

dancemonkey

I share regularly and I read my friends shares.

jvpastor

@Apollo L:
Thanks, Apollo!
I managed to get the OPML out of Yahoo, but not clear on how to get it into iGoogle. ;-(

Speedmaster

There doesn't seem to be a way to delete or something in your notes!? You can unshare a story in your shared items but it is forever stuck in yor notes folder. I was testing it on whatever site I was at and now I can't get rid of it.

CommenterKeen

I like it. If you make your shared items public, this makes Google Reader a pretty decent tumblelog. They even have a couple of different themes you can choose from.

I don't see it as a replacement for del.icio.us, though. I use del.icio.us for things I want to refer back to later, while Google Reader sharing is for things I want to point other people to. Short-term vs. long-term, I suppose.

Billy

I wonder if this will be sort of a "twitter-killer". Of course, Google will need to publicize the social aspects of Reader more, I think it's a little difficult to "follow" somebody as it currently stands.

I also think that it's interesting that you can edit the text of the original post. With this in mind, it might be useful for them to have a whole WYSIWYG editor there.

--Scott

Scott Wegner

I'm super happy about this functionality, frequently I'll share something, but without context, or why i'm sharing it, the relevance is lost on my friends.

Yes, I hope that they incorporate a way to reply. My thought is that on an item I've shared, you share it, also with a note... I don't have any friends able to test it out right now.... so I don't know how it will work.

Tuxhedoh

@dancemonkey:
Ahh, I see it now. Thanks I had been at iGoogle instead of Google Reader. ;-)

Speedmaster

I just like that now I have the ability to "explain" my reasoning behind sharing a post. I share alot, but my gamer friends probably don't care about my education contacts, and vice-versa. Hopefully adding a quick note will make things a little easier for us all.

rorowe

I've been wanting this for awhile now. I'm very happy. :)

Walkin

I really hope this is something they are going to develop further. The main problems at the moment are that you can't delete notes, and you can't search unshared notes - but the basic functionality is great.

olliebean

I've found that my friend list is slowly building momentum. The more I share, the more they share, but there's no integrated way to have a conversation about the posts.

I'd love to start comment threads with my friends about our shared posts.

PetroleumJelliffe

whoops,
Google Reader is an integral part of my day.... however THE SHARING FUNCTION has been useless for me so far.

gpzbc

Google Reader is an integral part of my day.... however, has been useless for me so far.

gpzbc

I love this! I could care less about the public sharing, but this is a great way to keep track of stuff that you don't necessarily want to bookmark!

oldredhat

One downfall to this, is that the friends list only includes folks you've communicated with using Gtalk, or Gmail chat. Even though I have friends on gmail, that might even use gReader, I can't add them while at work, since both Gmail and Gtalk is blocked!

Tuxhedoh

i think it's a great addition. the idea of clipping from webpages not found by google reader (ie, links of the unsolicited variety) is also a boon. could really do with a button for that function built into the google toolbar.

LuKeNuKuM

I, too, have been waiting for this functionality. As of right now, I only share things for one friend, and email the other relevant items directly. Now, I can add more of my friends and just indicate in the note who it's meant for.

One more reason I <3 Google.

poko

Nice feature. Hopefully Google starts to integrate some of their apps a little more. Right now it feels like a different department made each of the apps. A tighter integration and some feature sharing would really improve the usability of all of the apps.

I guess they are eternally "beta" though.

CaptainRoin

I liked the idea of google notebook, i had the extension installed for months. But I never really used it to it's full ability.
Having it combined with reader might be pretty cool.

That said, I'm using Diigo as a kind of combined del.icio.us and google notebook, and its pretty cool. If you use the highlight function you can clip things from pages. Plus share to groups, add sticky notes to the pages, bookmark (like delicious, but with full text search and page caching and annotaions), add to lists, post to blogs, and also mirror your bookmarks to del.icio.us and a few other bookmarking sites. It has a lot more useful features than I initially thought.
(plus I left GR for the bloglines beta a while back...)

soul_grind

Google Reader is an everyday thing for me but the inability to delete notes is a deal breaker. At first glance, I was thinking it could be a delicious replacement, but notes needs to be developed more to even come close.

Seth S.

I use it to feed out my favorite news stories to my blogs. This may replace readbag completely for me!

buffalo2001

This was definitely something I wanted. Sometimes I needed to add context as to why I was sharing something, or to point out something particular in the shared post, and now I can do it!

pennstatephil

It still won't replace del.icio.us for me. I can't organize the items in the shared list by tag (for others), nor can I "give" an item to a specific contact. Plus I can't browse the greater community by tag or search the group-knowledge.

Reader is a still great product, and I use it all the time. However, I'd rather see support for private/authenticated feeds than this kind of feature.

earth2marsh

I like the idea of this addition, though I'm left wondering why there isn't more integration among the google services. They have "Google Shared Stuff," but you have to share "stuff" separately in this app. It doesn't integrate your gReader Shared items or gBookmarks.

The other problem is that I don't know anyone else who uses gReader (at least among my friends). So the sharing is sort of wasted.

Ninjeff

I prefer using TwittyTunes in my Firefox browser, then I can post anything I'm reading/straight to my Twitter account and share with anyone on Twitter or FriendFeed.
[www.foxytunes.com]

UKStevieB

@Ninjeff: The sharing doesn't need to be through Google Reader. An RSS feed is created that can be imported at places like Facebook, placed on blog or countless other RSS-friendly places. There is a page generated by Google Reader that is viewable by anyone you give the URL to as well.

Apollo L

Anyone else not seeing this feature yet?

jdoree

Excellent addition. I love Google reader. Watch my shared feed in action now!

[www.google.com]

Iamthegamer

What is it with Google and delete buttons? Google Apps hosts my personal domain and I use mail, docs, reader, etc all the time.

But leaving off the Delete button is totally unacceptable.

devnull

In case anyone hasn't been paying close attention to Google, they're really pushing toward socializing their apps, with iGoogle sort of being the hub.

Ortzinator

@Apollo L: Well said. I was just about to mention that I publish both my Google Reader shared items as well as my del.icio.us posts on Facebook.

If they add a bit more functionality, I may switch to Google Reader exclusively.

Using the bookmarklet to post is very fast -- it shows a pop-up within the page you're looking at. Though I noticed just now it doesn't work for some sites. It would be a simple matter for del.icio.us to do this.

Problems:
* The pop-up lacks a "tags" field, which del.icio.us has.
* Inability to delete = big no-no.

Vic

I'm all for non-feed capturing. Some good bloggers haven't setup RSS feeds.. which is why until now I've visited sites like [www.thevelvethottub.com] to aggregate posts from non-rss sites.

michael233

@Apollo L: Too true. I forgot about that and I even use a service like that on Facebook.

Ninjeff

Great add but where is the delete button? Ok, take notes guys, but you gotta keep it forever!! I like google, but sometimes they are doing ridiculous things.

vrnsn

I don't care if is shared or not, I just use notes for myself

Dereks