NewsBlur is a fantastic new RSS feed reader that I feel will give any other feed reader out there on the market a run for it’s money.  It brings the ease of entry you get with Google Reader, but also has a few of it’s own unique features that make it stand out from the rest of the RSS feed reader crowd.

One of the best features about this feed reader is that it gives you the original webpage the story came from right there in the NewsBlur interface.  As a webmaster, I really like this because it means a few more eyeballs are going to be seeing the content on my actual website.  You can also view things in a more vanilla way – without seeing the website look and feel that you got the new story from.

As seen in the picture above, you can also train NewsBlur to learn more about what you like and what you dislike about the articles you are reading. Here is a little more about that part of the system from the developer:

When you like or dislike a story, you mark a facet of that story by checking a tag, author, part of the title, or entire publisher. When these facets are found in future stories, the stories are then weighted with your preferences. It is a very simple, explicit process where you tell NewsBlur what you like and don’t like.

If you like NewsBlur, which I am willing to bet you will, you can bump up to the paid version of the feed reading experience.  This will lift the 64 feed restriction and will help to go toward the future development of the script itself. Try the free version first, and see if it meets your feed reading needs. 

Go sign up for it at NewsBlur.com.

Feedlooks is a very interest new way to subscribe to your favorite website RSS feeds, and keep track of when they have new posts to check out.  Rather than serving as a separate webpage you visit to keep up with RSS subscriptions, Feedlooks comes with you to each website you want to visit.

Now, I know that might sound a little strange, so let me explain.  After looking in you get your standard interface that is simple, to the point and does not mess around with too much visual candy.

So where is the excitement? When you click on one of these preview links for the RSS feed you are subscribed to, it will take you directly to the page the post is on.  So how do you get back to the Feedlooks service?  It stays loaded as a web-based toolbar across the top of the page.

Want to get back to your list of feeds you need to read? Just click the “Home” section at the top and it pops back up with more headlines for you to check out.  Once you are done checking your feeds – you don’t have to mark the ones you have not checked out yet as read to get rid of them.   Simply close Feedlooks. New items added since you last checked will show under the default category “New”.

As a website publisher, this is really exciting to me because I like the idea of bringing more people in to see my content on my actual website.

Overall, I have high hopes for this great new service.  You can sign up and check it out at Feedlooks.com.  This is the first RSS reader to give Google Reader a run for its money in a long time.

Looking for an easy way to get through your Monday morning feeds?  Use these add-ons for Firefox, mix them up with Google Reader and then recover the rest of your morning.

• Google Reader Notifier – This shows you how many unread items you have in your Google Reader account.
• Google Reader Watcher – Afraid your updates are getting away from you?  Google Reader Watcher will check your Google Reader for unread news.
• feedly – Feedly is a new kind of RSS start page which weaves Google Reader, Digg and Delicious into a more fun, magazine-like user experience.
• Better GReader – Preview web pages inline in Google Reader, collapse the header and sidebar for more reading area, get a Mac OS X like skin, add favicons to feed subscriptions and more with Better GReader.
• Shareaholic – Shareaholic allows you to quickly share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages via a very wide array of your favorite web 2.0 social networking & bookmarking sites such as Google Reader!
• IntenseDebate in Google Reader – Add IntenseDebate comments to Google Reader.
• Google Reader Toolkit – Adds a few more browser utilities for use with Google Reader.
• Integrated GMail – Allows you to make the Inbox Collapsible and loads your choice of Google Calendar, Reader, Notebook, Groups etc… seamlessly into the gmail interface. Works w/Google Apps Accounts.
• gReader Comments – gReader Comments is a Greasemonkey script-turned-extension for Firefox that brings all Disqus conversations into Google Reader.

Know of anymore good ones?  How have you super-charged Google Reader?  Be sure to share!

Want to keep up to date whenever your Google Reader has fresh new content to read through?  There are several browser plugins that will do this, but not many for the operating system itself.  I have three solutions though to cover all of the operating system bases:

• Google Reader Notifier (for Windows)
• Reader Notifier (for Macs)
• GrNotify (for Linux)

Now you should have no problems at all keeping up with my RSS feed.  Feel free to subscribe and pass it around to others. 

So what is a link loving geek to do?

Well I decided to figure out a way to post my shared posts form Google Reader into my Twitter posts.

1. Grab your Google Reader shared items RSS feed. This can be done by clicking on the “Shared Items” link in the Google Reader sidebar and then grab the RSS feed it gives you at the top of the next page.

2. Login to TwitterFeed.com (with an OpenID) and setup the feed to Twitter settings. Make sure the checkmark for Include item link (if unchecked, sends tweet without the tinyurl link) is selected.

Now Google Reader’s shared items should be showing up on your Twitter profile. My Twitter is now a little better.

It makes it a quick an easy process to output this to something the public (yes, that would be you) can enjoy. I want an easier way to view my shared items though without having to visit my web site. I’d like to put my shared items on my iGoogle web page actually.

How can I do that?

1. Login to Google Reader and click on the “Shared Items” link.

2. Grab the RSS output link that it gives you from the web page. It should be close to the top as long as you have “shared” a few things.

3. Visit the “Add Stuff” page on iGoogle and click on the link to “add by URL”

4. Paste the RSS feed you grabbed earlier into this box. Click the “Add” button.

Your done! Now it should be on your iGoogle web page and you can customize how it is displayed from there.

Take a look at the javascript code Google gives you to post on your own Web site. The specific part you want to look for is broadcast?n=5. Change the number five to any number you wish, and that is how many shared stories that you will display.

So what is a geek to do? I decided to use my “shared” items list from Google Reader – do a little tweaking here and there and get it up and online that way.

The good news for you is you can now see the neat links I find via my favorite feed reader. (insert excitement here)

The good news for me is this is almost brain dead simple to do, so I shouldn’t lose interest in it because it seems to be too much work.

Everybody wins! Go check out the new Mitchelaneous Links section to see some of the links I have suggested that you check out. If there is anything else you’d like to see there – let me know.

You’ll need Firefox and an install of the Greasemonkey extension to get it going, but for all the Mac OS X Fans out there – this is for you.

+ Download and Install the Google Reader Prettifier!

If you have any other suggestions for it, please let me know.

I have had fun collecting all these links, tips and tweaks from all around the Web – and I hope you have been enjoying checking them all out as well.

This might be the most popular topic I have covered via this Web site in a very long time. You know me though – always happy to help!

+ Check Out the Unofficial Google Reader Tools and Guide!