Feedly Mini Updated: Now with More Twitter and FriendFeed Interaction
We can no longer call Feedly just "an alternative interface for Google Reader" as we once did. Since the launch of Feedly Mini, a new mini bar that hovers at the bottom of the screen as you surf through blogs on the web, the service has become more of blog reading companion than anything else. Today that bar, also known as Feedly Mini, has been updated to better integrate both Twitter and FriendFeed with your blog reading. The experience is incredible and makes Feedly a must-have tool for anyone who uses these services.
The updated Feedly Mini was designed after being inspired by Robert Scoble, says Feedly creator Edwin Khodabakchian. Once installed into your web browser (Firefox only), Feedly Mini will provide you with a look at real-time metadata about the page you've visited and will offer a set of sharing tools to help you more easily spread the content.
In this latest version, the metadata you're able to see includes the number of FriendFeed conversations, the number of Diggs, and the number of times the post has been shared in Google Reader or Feedly. To the right of those informational icons are more buttons that let you share the post in Google Reader/Feedly, save the page for later reading (star in Google Reader), Twitter the page, or email it to a friend.
When you've finished reading (and interacting) with the content on your screen, there's a "next" button which you can click to go to the next recommendation in your Feedly/Google Reader.
Integrated Twitter and FriendFeed
In addition to providing tools that help you better understand and share the blog posts you read, Feedly also reminds you how you came across them in the first place. If you originally saw the post on Twitter, a small notification will pop-up to remind you of that tweet and on the notification window there's an option to reply or re-tweet the information directly from the web page you're currently on.
Alternately, if the article you're reading is hot on FriendFeed, Feedly Mini's pop-up will notify you of a popular conversation around the blog's content occurring on FriendFeed. With one click, you can then join that conversation.
If you're not a fan of notifications or just want to dial them back a bit, you can do so from a preference knob called "Mini Friendfeed Notifications" which allows you to control and customize the behavior of these notifications.
How To Get It
All these new features will be made available today as part of a Feedly update to v 1.2 patch 170. If you're not seeing these features yet, don't worry - Feedly is good about delivering automatic updates to their users. In other words, you can install Feedly now, then sit back and wait for the magic to happen. If you do end up trying the new version, you can let @feedly on Twitter know what you think. If you run into any problems, you can log it on get satisfaction where every ticket is responded to within 24 hours.
You never know what Feedly will add next. Past updates includes integration with Ubiquity, integration with your Google Search, and more. Based on the image below, it appears that Twitter and FriendFeed are only the start of Feedly's planned integrations for this increasingly useful tool.
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I have a video with Edwin uploading right now to http://www.kyte.tv/scobleizer that shows off these new features. One note: the article makes it sound like I was working for Feedly. I was not. I did not receive any compensation for inspiring Edwin.
Posted by: Robert Scoble
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February 11, 2009 7:11 AM
Perhaps I just don't know how it works well enough but two things will prevent me from using Feedly Mini, which I have been trying out today:
1. When I am in Google Reader, Feedly Mini shows me FriendFeed conversations about Google Reader as opposed to the particular blog post I'm reading. It seems it does not recognise individual Google Reader items
2. When I try to use the Tweet This feature when in Google Reader, it looks like it wants to tweet Google Reader, as opposed to the post I'm reading. I guess this is linked to my first gripe above.
3. The next feature gives me blog posts that I have already read and marked as such in Google Reader. I thought the integration between the two was tighter.
This looks like great technology though and I would certainly use it but for the above issues.
@Robert: updated post to read "inspired" not "helped" - It was unclear in Edwin's original wording (see his post), which read "With the help of Robert Scoble...".
Posted by: Sarah Perez
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February 11, 2009 7:50 AM
thanks you..
Hi Sarah. Thank you very for the write-up. I apologize if the wording of my post was misleading. What I really meant was that we are leveraging Robert and the video he is publishing to launch/announce feedly mini. I will update the post to address this. Regarding Amazon and NYT, they are not yet integrated in the mini but they are integrated in digest: the Amazon module provides product recommendation (you need to opt-in) and the NYT search API is used in the Explore page. Many thanks for the review!
Posted by: Edwin Khodabakchian
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February 11, 2009 8:12 AM
Thanks Sarah. Edwin, the video should be up in a few minutes. It'll get posted here when it's up.
Posted by: Robert Scoble
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February 11, 2009 8:21 AM
@IdeaTigger
Feedly mini is designed to work on websites directly. We will make sure to address that confusion by not activating it on Google Reader.
The next and mark as read must be a caching issue. I will open a bug against it so that we can track this problem down.
Thanks for the feedback!
Here is the link to Robert's video:
http://scobleizer.com/2009/02/11/new-feedly-combines-google-reader-friendfeed-twitter-in-great-way-for-social-network-addicts/#comment-2006696
Thanks again Sarah: this post initiated a lot of reactions on twitter:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=feedly+-%23feedly
I'm impressed - and I don't get that impressed about too many things :)
Posted by: Ian Betteridge
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February 11, 2009 2:55 PM
I'm now trying it out and first impressions are very good. Looks like a great tool once I've changed my previous Google Reader habits.
Posted by: Joe Buhler
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February 11, 2009 5:29 PM
Holy cow. The direct conversation feature is a killer!
Posted by: Toni @ NavinoT
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February 11, 2009 6:06 PM
does it work with chrome
Posted by: Prakash
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February 11, 2009 8:04 PM
Prakash: not yet, only Firefox.
Posted by: Robert Scoble
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February 11, 2009 8:24 PM
I have the mini installed which is great, where is the start page though.
Posted by: Chris Frost
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February 12, 2009 3:57 AM
So far so good. Twitter is not playing ball though, none of my friends feeds are coming through. Bug?
Posted by: Dukeswharf
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February 12, 2009 4:46 AM
Great FF add-on and it still gets better and better.
Posted by: 41235
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February 12, 2009 5:39 AM
@chris. you should be able to access the start page (aka Digest) at http://www.feedly.com/home#my
@chris. you should be able to access the start page (aka Digest) at http://www.feedly.com/home#my
This is great stuff, Edwin! Congrats on the update. When we launched BlogRovR about 2 years ago, and watched it grow to over 300k registered users and become one of Firefox's recommended add-ons, we knew we had struck a chord with an information-hungry and conversation-minded audience, as we deliver in real-time trusted blog posts related to any page users browse to. You have taken this further with the friendfeed and twitter integration!
Didn't like this at first. Wow, very cool now!
Posted by: Alex C. Williams
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February 12, 2009 7:28 PM
this is v cool..
Posted by: riaz
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February 13, 2009 4:20 AM
The next and mark as read must be a caching issue. I will open a bug against it so that we can track this problem down.
muhabbet mIRC
Thanks a lot. keep it up.
thank you very much
What I really meant was that we are leveraging Robert and the video he is publishing to launch/announce feedly mini. I will update the post to address this.
Regarding Amazon and NYT, they are not yet integrated in the mini but they are integrated in digest: the Amazon module provides product recommendation (you need to opt-in) and the NYT search API is used in the Explore page. Many thanks for the review!