Read It Later Comes To Google Reader
Popular Firefox addon Read It Later has just introduced an updated version of their plugin which adds new functionality to Google Reader. With the new extension, which now works in both Firefox and IE, you can now get through your RSS feeds faster by checking off the items you want to read later in more detail. You can then access those saved items from any web browser, whether it's Firefox at home, IE at work, or even your iPhone.
The updated Read It Later extension adds a Greasemonkey-esque feature to your Google Reader feed list that places a check mark next to your feed items to the right of the star. As you go through your feeds, the posts you check will be automatically added to your reading list - the saved list of items you can access at anytime at readitlaterlist.com. With the extension's included offline functionality, you can also queue up a number of articles to read when you know you're going to be away from the net - like when you're on a plane trip, for example.
When managing your reading list through the bookmarklet, you now have more options as well. You can view your list as either "normal" or "condensed," select how many items to show per page, open the list in the sidebar, and enable or disable various context menus and additional toolbar buttons.
However, the best feature to come to your reading list is the ability to sort it by PostRank. This functionality, formerly called AideRSS, is something we've been big fans of here at RWW for some time. With PostRank enabled, your reading list is intelligently filtered by popularity. Posts are scored in several ways, including number of comments it received, number of times it's been tagged in Del.icio.us, number of diggs, and how many inbound links it has received. So now, you can read your list in order of importance, an especially useful feature for those suffering from information overload.
Other improvements like updated privacy controls and tweaks to existing features round out this latest release, making Read It Later a great addition to your browser whether that's Firefox or IE. Now all we need is an iPhone bookmarklet and we'll be all set.
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But can you use the extension to read stuff on ur iPhone?
Posted by: Zee from WeDoCreative
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October 30, 2008 7:03 AM
Hmm. I am using LaterLoop to fill this roll. Might need to look at this though. LaterLoop's keyboard shortcut works great with Google Reader.
Posted by: Sean Brady
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October 30, 2008 7:32 AM
This addon has become an indispensable tool for me. I used to email pages to myself to read later...no more clogging up my email...perfect merger with Google Reader...job well done.
Posted by: Ben | October 30, 2008 7:52 AM
readbag.com has an extension for google reader
Posted by: RT | October 30, 2008 8:23 AM
@RT: I've found readitlater to be unreliable - links would not work and then the site went down for more than a week. I've switched to RIL after that happened and never looked back.
Of course, I'm also a huge fan of PostRank sorting, for obvious reasons.. :)
Posted by: Ilya Grigorik | October 30, 2008 8:28 AM
@Ilya: I assume you mean you found 'readbag' to be unreliable?
Posted by: Rob | October 30, 2008 8:34 AM
@Rob: sigh, yep! I meant to say.. "Found readbag to be unreliable", sorry about the confusion!
Posted by: Ilya Grigorik | October 30, 2008 8:42 AM
Awesome...
Exactly what I was looking for.
Scott from http://venturedig.com
Posted by: scott | October 30, 2008 9:21 AM
my question is, why would you want another tool? I use Google Reader every day. Anything I want to read later I star, then I come back to it.
If it's really good I share it, if not I can always search for it later in Reader. This let's me check from any computer and my phone -- if I don't have time to read something or if I can't get the page to open on my feeble Windows Mobile device, I star it so I can come back later.
Posted by: Kevin Micalizzi
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October 30, 2008 10:55 AM
Nice, I was using stars for that... early morning feed scan (is very full in Europe when following US based blogs) and read during the day..
Posted by: Aad 't Hart | October 30, 2008 5:09 PM
nice addition to Google reader to read later.
Posted by: venkat | October 31, 2008 4:59 AM
For us, working on Reader is a dream job. Why? Because we have the perfect excuse when we're caught browsing feeds at work!
Here we go!!
Posted by: commy | October 31, 2008 7:30 PM
Wow that is awesome! i knew red it Later would show up sooner or later!
Jiff
www.Privacy-center.net
Posted by: Jimmy Bean | October 31, 2008 7:39 PM
congrats to Nate
Posted by: Ryan Spahn | October 31, 2008 8:08 PM
Great function! I always wanted the "read later" function since I'm too busy to read all my feeds.
Posted by: Maria | October 31, 2008 10:40 PM
wow interesting
Posted by: Jhon | November 1, 2008 3:14 AM
Great article. Thanks for the information.
Posted by: Free xbox 360 System | November 1, 2008 8:19 PM
Read later in Google reader is cute! Now all we are so busy, can't read everything at the same time. we can only do this at free time. This addon is cute!
Posted by: Phao Loo | November 1, 2008 11:58 PM
Nate writes these tools in his spare time. Quite an amazing and capable guy. I recommend you browse his ideashower.com website if you get the chance.
Posted by: Harley | November 2, 2008 3:32 PM
Hopefully gmail implements this feature natively.
Posted by: free ps3 | November 2, 2008 4:45 PM
I'm with Kevin on this one. I star things I want to read later.. why add another plugin
Posted by: Sachendra Yadav | November 5, 2008 1:08 AM