Google Reader as Middleware

Google Reader is quite a useful web site from Google. It can follow the feeds from other web sites and the user will be informed for any news transmitted in the feed. For those who do not know what a feed is - it is a XML file in RSS or Atom format which contains the latest information added on some web site.
One can insert feeds in Google Reader and later read the news from there without the need to go to the specific web site. Google Reader is very useful because it saves a lot of time and delivers information which we are normally interested in. However, it is often the case that the information is just too much. The problem can be solved with tags or folders.

Google Reader enables the user to assign such tags to different feeds, so that the information has some structure and is easily perceived. One can set up Google Reader such that it sends notifications per mail containing the new information items.

For heavy Google Reader users as me, even the tags do not work. I have subscribed for hundreds of feeds and I have thousands of unread items in my Google Reader account. If I try to read everything regularly I'll spend hours and hours reading without doing anything useful. In such case a web site which was designed to save time will be the reason for wasting time. What is the point then of Google Reader and all similar web applications ? The answer reveals the beauty of Google Reader - it emits its own feeds including feeds for the tags!

You may ask, what is the beauty here ? The answer is: Google Reader can be used as a middleware, as a service which aggregates the information but is not used for rendering it. Instead a new application which is better suited for visualization will present the information items to the user.

Here are the drawbacks of the interface of Google Reader:

• the items are displayed in a sequential order, having the title and a bit of details - it would be much better to have only the title and to use the saved space for displaying another item.
  
• if the user chooses one feed then the new items will often be too few and if the user chooses one tag then the items will sometimes be too much - better would be an aggregate + truncate approach. It would be nice to use tags for aggregation and then to display only the first 10 or 20 items. Ignore the rest! You may say that the information is lost then. I admit it could be the case. However, we can not be able to follow everything. Even if we read all the items, we will forget the information which is not relevant for us. We have to learn to let things go. Moreover, if a piece of information is really important it will be inevitably repeated. Especially if it is trend-setting news.
• the information in Google Reader is out of context. We can much easier remember and apply certain information if it is the proper context, if we can make associations. Our aim is then to deliver the information items from Google Reader in the proper context using its feeds.

What I did was to use Google Reader in conjunction with Netvibes. First I set up my start page in Netvibes and created tabs there which corresponded to different cotnexts : work, home, hobby, web applications which I use and so on. Then I inserted my Google Reader feeds in the appropriate tabs. In this way I solved both the problem with the linear presentation and the problem of the lack of context. Netvibes allows to arrange the elements of the start page spatially. I could have then up to 7 boxes with Google Reader feeds in one tab which I could scan immediately, saving enormous amount of time and absorbing a lot of information. Reading the feeds in context helps me filter, assimilate and remember the useful items. I could configure as well how much items will be displayed in order not to feel overwhelmed. Interestingly, if the boxes for the Google Reader feeds are spatially distributed - one left, one right for example, the information is perceived much easier.

That is how I use Google Reader as middleware. I utilize its feeds by inserting them in my Netvibes start page. It turned to be an exceptionally useful combination. Now I am up-to-date with everything I am interested in without feeling overwhelmed or spending too much time.
Of course, that combination is not unique. One could use any other feed reader instead of Google Reader as well as any other customizable start page. Google Reader + Netvibes is my personal choice which I do not insist to be the best one.