Library clips

For those who want more out of Google Reader and can’t wait, check out the hacks below; among some, search within Google Reader (yeah!) and read native blog posts.

Specs

FireFox browser

Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript, see the list.

I’ve listed a few hacks below, here’s the list.

Hacks

1. Google Reader Preview Enhanced

Read native blog posts within Google Reader, no more limited by excerpt feeds as you can now read the actual page itself from within Google Reader…plus see and make comments right there within Google Reader.
You will see a preview button along the bottom of the RSS item:
eg. Add star, ShareEmail (Updated), Mark as read, Edit tags, Preview

Similar is a link to the Original article instead of having to click on the title.

2. Add a search box to Google Reader

Here’s the script

3. BetterGReader (this doesn’t require Greasemonkey)

Choice of skins (more), smart subscribe and Quick Links (more)

4. Auto-add feed to Google Reader

Bypasses the choice to add a feed Google homepage or Google Reader, directly adding to Google Reader.

5. Gbutts (this doesn’t require Greasemonkey)

Display all of your Google Services as buttons just next to your addressbar or anywhere you like it…not really exclusive to this list of Google Reader hacks, but still handy as a one click icon to launch it.

6. Google Reader + Twitter

Adds reader posts to twitter when clicked

7. Google Reader + del.icio.us

Adds reader posts to del.icio.us when clicked

You may already use the right-click deature from the FF del.icio.us add-on

8. Facebook Sharer + Google Reader

websites can be shared with Facebook friends and on a Facebook profile

9. Google Reader’s BlogThis2Me

Blog a current feed’s entry to your blog.

This is meant to enhance the BlogThis action to include other blog types, but I think Google Reader has dropped the BlogThis action feature.
Otherwise use another FF add-on called JustBlogIt.

10. Google Reader All Starred

Script to extract all links from google reader that have been starred

Once you have done this, try the OPMLify bookmarklet to generate code to wrap all these links in an OPML (to see your results, scroll down the page after you have clicked the bookmarklet..then you will have to save this code as a text file and upload it to Grazr to create an OPML URL.

11. Google Reader Checker

Checks your Google Reader for unread news

Suggests to instead use Google Reader Watcher (this doesn’t require Greasemonkey)

12. Google Reader Notifier

Shows you how many unread items you have in your Google Reader (this doesn’t require Greasemonkey)

13. Google Reader - Read by Mouse

Under the subscription pane you can turn on/off mouse mode - left click is next item and right click is previous item…middle click is a choice of share/star/open in new tab

Also check out the list of Shortcut Keys.

14. Integrate Google Reader with Gmail

Adds a “Feeds” in Gmail. When clicked, Reader’s list view is loaded on the right.

Also part of the Better Gmail FF add-on.

15. Google Reader quick hide message

Quickly hides the message displayed in Google Reader after performing renames, folder changes etc.

Also let’s not forget the handy next/previous bookmarklets, find them in your Google Reader Seeting tab under Goodies.

For those who who use the Google Toolbar, check out this hack that adds a Google Reader button to your toolbar…if the button turns green it means you have new content.

[ADDED 12/07/08: AideRSS - Filter items in Google Reader by social popularity]

A while back I mentioned the RSS Preview Blum, a bookmarklet that will discover if the webpage you are on has a feed, and be able to subscribe to it directly into your RSS Reader, it also allows you to graze the latest posts - a good way to check it out before you commit to subscribing.

Well, now you can get this as a FireFox add-on.

Further to this, John Forsythe has put one on his blog as a button, now anyone who visits his website can click this button, graze contents, subscribe to the feed, even check out some microformats…very nifty. Can’t wait to get my own.

This is something Grazr could add to their feature list, I can put a Grazr button on my blog that lists my latest posts, but it lacks the feature to easy subscribe to this feed in your favourite RSS Reader.
Plus the RSS Preview Blum isn’t a pop-up box, instead it’s a groovy ajax overlay box.

At the moment (the FF add-on version) will display an RSS label on any corner of your window if the page you are on has a feed, just like Live Bookmarks does in the address bar.
One thing that it’s missing is discovering OPML’s…I’d like it to display an OPML label when it discovers one and to be able to graze the OPML.

Something similar; what about having the OPML icon appear in the FireFox address bar, just like the RSS icon (live bookmarks), this way you can add an OPML to your live bookmarks, a bit like the idea of taskable.

Similar bookmarklets are OPML Discoverer, Grazr it, and Grazr Nav (these do the same thing)

Grazr Preview (Shift-click) enables you to click on the bookmarklet, then click any link on a page, it will discover feeds and OPML’s in order to graze…very impressive that I can now graze the latest posts of a blogs from a link in one of my RSS items in my RSS Reader.

OPMLify Page Links is a bit different, it scrapes all links on a given webpage and wrap thems in an OPML.