Looking for a way to have what is copied to your clipboard read back to you?  Speak Clipboard is the free software solution you have been looking for.  This voice reader for Windows will read out load the content of your clipboard in plain English.

This really comes in handy when checking spelling or grammar errors, listening to your e-mails or having an article read to you.  Once downloaded and installed, the application is very easy to use.  It will first check to see if you have any text-based content in your clipboard, and if you do it will start speaking and highlight on the screen every pronounced word.

Want to give it a shot?  Point your browser towards SpeakTools.com to pick up Speak Clipboard and see how many more uses you can find for it.

Feed Rinse – The job of Feed Rinse is to filter out syndicated content that you just are not that interested in checking out.  They call it a spam filter for your RSS feed subscriptions.  To use it, all you do is import your feeds, setup your filters and then enjoy your new “cleaner” results.  Also, if you have checked them out before and didn’t want to pay for the service, you no longer have to.  The premium service is now free.

Feedscrub – How does Feedscrub clean help you trim your subscription list down?  Also working on a filter-based system, Feedscrub listens to you when you tell them what posts you do and don’t like, and then learns from your input what to do and how to filter.  This allows you to get right to the good stuff you want to read about.

Of course, if you are looking for a few RSS feeds, I am sure you would be happy with these to start off with or to add to your collection:

• http://feedproxy.google.com/mitchelaneous
• http://feedproxy.google.com/webhostingshow
• http://feedproxy.google.com/firefoxfacts

Both Feedscrub and Feed Rinse offer great ways to filter through the noise when it comes to the feeds you are subscribed to.  I would suggest trying both out and see which one works best for you.

Google

To open up Google, just drag this bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar:

+ Google

Google Notebook

To open up Google Notebook, just drag this bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar:

+ Google Notebook

Google Talk

To open up Google Talk, just drag this bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar:

+ Google Talk

Google Calendar

To open up Google Calendar, drag this bookmark to your bookmarks toolbar:

+ Google Calendar

Google Reader

To open up Google Reader, drag this bookmark to your bookmarks toolbar:

+ Google Reader

What other useful Google resources would make for a good bookmarklet?  These are the ones I find myself using the most, how about you?

To get a taste of what they have to offer, check out the demo for yourself. 

Some of the "pros" for this service is that it makes it easy to combine sources into one place, it can be used for corporate use, it works on the iPhone, and it looks like they are really working hard at making the service better for everybody. 

The GR Menu Hider gives you that option. After installing it just click the link and your sidebar is there – then it is not. By hiding the menu you can have a larger space to read your feeds.

Tip: For those of you who don’t want the extra script, the way you hide the sidebar via the keyboard shortcut is by hitting the “U” key.

You can go pick up the Greasemonkey script here to install. The only thing different was I wish it was a little icon instead of the words “Toggle menu”. That just seems to stick out like a sore thumb to me.

Tip 1 : Use Expanded View – I like expanded view because it makes it very easy to scroll through all the feed items and speed read my way through them. No I don’t read every single item from every single feed. I quickly browse and watch for things that get my attention.

Tip 2 : Use the “J” Button to Go From Item to Item – Now you could scroll down or use the down arrow key to slowly make your way down the list. If you want to skip down to the next entry though, all you need to do is hit the “J” key. If you want to go backwards, use the “K” key to go back to the previous post you have already viewed. (awesome keyboard photo by paolovalde via Flickr)

Tip 3 : Ditch the Sidebar to Get More Reading Room – To hide the sidebar that shows your lables and links, just hit the “U” key. This will give you even more room to read when you have a long list of feed entries to go through. To un-hide it, just hit the “U” key again. Get more keyboard shortcuts here.

Tip 4 : Get the New Stuff First – I don’t need to see the home page for Google Reader when I want to go catch up on my RSS feeds. Click on the link for “Settings” and then “Preferences” and find where it says “Start Page”. Here you can select what page or selection of labels you will start looking through when Google Reader starts up. I have mine set on “All Items”.

Tip 5 : Watch Your Feed Reading Trends – If you point your browser towards the Google Reader Trends link you can see a plethora of information about how you read your feeds. You can see popular tags, subscription trends, and reading trends. Seeing what time of the day you check your feeds is cool. They will give you the most popular day of the week for your feed reading ways as well. You can also see the number of posts you have read per day in the last 30 days.

Tip 6 : Star Items to Save for Later – I subscribe to a lot of wallpaper related RSS feeds, so when I find one I like – I might not have time to save the wallpaper at this very moment. That is where “staring” entries in the Google Reader can be helpful. You can do so by clicking the star icon at the bottom of any entry. To view all the ones you have starred, click on the “Starred Items” link on your left sidebar.

I know “search” might not be the most innovative new thing I can do, but it also shows off Google’s new search results within a Web page feature.

+ Visit Hosting Hoopla – Web Hosting News and Link Reader!