Google Reader Refines Sharing

Google Reader has had the ability to share feeds for a while. You can mark individual items in your feeds as shared items, and they go into your shared feed. Originally the feeds were public, but the address was obscure. Late last year, Google tried to make it easier by automatically sharing with your Google Talk and Gmail contacts.

That didn't work out quite as expected. People got angry at Google for making a public page, well, more public. The problem I had with the system was that it was difficult to add someone as a contact. I intentionally tried to add a friend of mine, and we ended up having to open a Google Talk chat in order to add each other. I'd rather just send them an email invitation, like I do with Google Docs.

The new solution should please both sides. Google Reader now offers sharing for either selected contacts or everyone in your chat. You can keep your feed public, exclude a few people on your list, or invite others to share by just sending them an email.

Click on the Sharing Settings link on the upper left side of Google Reader to get started.

• What Is Google Reader?
• How to Add a Feed to Google Reader
• How to Share Google Docs