Google Reader’s “shared with note” + FriendFeed = whole new way to microblog
Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion fame and Robert Scoble are two of the most “bleeding edge” power users of Google Reader around. Rubel writes mini-treatises on extracting and managing data out of Google Reader that will make your head spin, while Scoble – among other things – has been a leading user of a feature called “shared with note.”
For a long time I didn’t pay much attention to either “shared” or “shared with note.” But over the past six months or so, I’ve become increasingly addicted to the “shared” feature. Not only is it addictive in a digg/reddit “vote it up” kind of way, but it’s a rather nice way to collect the stories that you like.
I love browsing through the stories that my Gmail contacts have shared, and even better, my shared items also appear on my FriendFeed stream, so that other people can “like” it and comment and so on.
I’ve been a fan of Robert Scoble’s shared items for some time, actually added it as a standalone RSS feed some time ago before entering my new shared-crazed fame. Over time I noticed that little notes were being inserted into the top of the shared items, as so:
Pretty cool, I thought. But it wasn’t until very recently that I put it all together (sometimes I’m a little slow on these things, perhaps!) that adding a note to a shared item actually tacks that note directly onto your FriendFeed thread.
So in essence you’re kicking off a potential conversational thread about an interesting story right from your “HQ” of digging through stories on Google Reader.
That’s pretty easy, intuitive (once it gets on your radar), social media-y, microbloggy, addictive. In short, rad.
