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Friday
Aug282009
Screencast: Google Reader Isn't Just for News, It's Also an Awesome Database
Young Urban ProfessionalThink RSS is dead? Think it's too slow for the age of streams? Perhaps that's true for news. But have you ever considered using Google Reader as a private database? In this screencast I will show you how I do just that. This is why, for some like Marshall, RSS still remains essential.
Reader Comments (25)
Steve, your blog is fantastic and I just "found it" this afternoon. What I have learned and written down in the last 30 minutes certainly will help me to create new thougts and ways to conduct Social Media and it's siblings diferently. The RSS post was eye-opening for me, and yes - you are right we are too often judging "older" technology as a thing from the past, which would not be able to survive in todays new media stream. RSS will still be one of my choices to research in future.Thank you you and I am looking forward to more of your insights.VJ
My pleasure VJ - and welcome!
Wow, I can't believe I've been using Google Reader for so long, and have probably stared right at that search bar without knowing what it did or even using it. Thanks for this. It has me wondering how much more of Reader I have yet to discover.
This is one more advantage of using Reader to read your Posterous subscriptions. You can use Reader's search function which is much more powerful than that of Posterous.
Thanks, this will be very helpful for many. Of course, Twitter and Facebook addicts can search with GReader the RSS feeds those sites provide.
Awesome Steve. Now I have a) a new thing to try in Snow Leopard and b) a good example for why you build up a huge list of feeds to follow.
Thanks Tris. I would love the ability to create screencasts on the iPhone. I can with photos and audio but not video - yet. Hope to see you in TO maybe this fall.
It's been too long Steve! You know Vancouver is a great place too! ;-)
Spot on Steve - Google Reader is great for preserving the Twitter Hive Mind now that Twitter only let's us search back about 10 days.Take any search term you want to look for on Twitter and preserve it via RSS in Google Reader. http://ekive.blogspot.com/2009/08/preserving-twitter-hive-mind.html
Great tip, thanks. I still love Google Reader as well, and it's great via iPhone. But my main ui for it is via feedly... which I also love! (I've written about my use of it here... http://jasonbergman.me/musings... ) However, while RSS might seem dead as an end user tool it is the driving force behind some of today's best internet technologies. Even with all the great web 2.0 plugins, widgets, and other gadgets... a number of them are made possible by pulling RSS streams.
great screencast - more please!
Great video Steve! I have used Google Reader as a private search database for some time now and it's awesome. I will usually go to Reader first before I go out to Google if it's for a subject that I know blogs I subscribe to write about. This becomes very useful in putting together presentations and blog posts.It's funny because I always seem to forget, after a while, to keep using Reader in this way until someone comes along and reminds me again. :)
I've been thinking of Google Reader as a database for a long time and there are some uses in addition to the one you list above. I use it to create searchable archives my tweets and the links I share on Facebook and del.icio.us (all have RSS feeds). I also use it to archive mentions of my name and my company that come in from all the sources that I monitor. Google Reader is an unbelievable resource that is getting better all the time and I thank you for fostering discussion about it. In fact, it was through following your shared items that I discovered how to create bundles with Google Reader!
Wow, let me echo what many others have said so often. You have taught me so much about new technologies and how to use them. Thanks.Andy
Well I've been using Google Reader as a database for about 5 years now and pull all my cancer RSS feeds in as well as Delicious, Twitter and other links. It makes it a very searchable tool.It's saved my bacon a few times when a client is on the road asking, "do you know anything about..." usually gets the answer faster in GR then Google for me on these work related issues. It's nice to be able to help and give the answer promptly. They remember that :-)
Steve- This post is spot on. I am perplexed that some would abandon the full content/articles available via RSS for the noise of "the stream." And I am reassured that you haven't yet! I think we are fast approaching a point of diminishing returns whereby the focus on "content rate" degrades content quality, and/or users ability to digest it (and then what good is it?) - a theme and dilemma not unfamiliar to your posts. Thanks as always for the discussion, -MM
every now and then I come across explanations like this one about how powerful Google reader is and each time I promise myself to give it a second thought. Thanks for once again reigniting my interest in it through RSS feeds.
Maybe it's just me, but the video seems to be rather broken.
I have used google reader for search purpose for quite a long time, haha~
Thank you for emphasizing the benefit of Google Reader which is often overlooked. I've been using it for more than 3 years, and it's amazing how far the reader goes back to the past time to find the article. Using search query on the Starred items, I can access the large piles of articles that are bookmarked, organized into folders and residing in the Cloud. The greatest benefits of using a RSS reader, in my opinion, are aggregating enormous amount of information to one place and using the unified interface, so I can save much time.
Glad to hear someone boosting RSS. Twitter is for the lazy... Wrote a little something myself about how to use GR (including a few notes on using it as a database) http://www.jungrelations.com/blog/how-to-become-a-google-reader-ninja/
Cool screencast on using Google Reader as a database, Steve. I actually use it for searching quite a bit, too, and it's great (e.g., "I wonder what TechCrunch thinks about iPhone app XYZ"). Also, you might want to check out http://screenr.com for easily creating high-def screencasts.
I have found so many interesting thing in your blog and I really love that Keep up the good work
Steve-Thanks for your interest! Your blog and recommendations are a big inspiration, including my shift to Posterous. Best regards,Matt / www.sanslimits.com
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