And some more social features

Oct 23, 2009 07:18 GMT  ·  By

RSS/Atom feeds aren't exactly the most exciting technology and there are plenty that are ready to hail it as dead. There are quite a few obvious shortcomings but many people still rely on feeds and at least some developers haven't given up on them. Google has been plowing ahead adding new features and expanding the functionality of its Google Reader and the developers have put a lot of effort lately into the social aspect. Now it's adding a new section to make it easier to find new interesting stories but also adding a bit of 'magic' to the way it sorts the feeds.

“We're always trying to help you discover new stuff in Reader, and today we're introducing "Popular items" and "Recommended sources", two ways to find interesting content from all over the Internet,” Beverly Yang, a software engineer in search quality at Google, wrote.

These features are now grouped in the new Explore section, which shows up on top of your regular feeds. Google determines what is popular around the web, not just your feeds, and surfaces those stories in “Popular items.” At the same time the recommendations are now also grouped in the Explore section and have been renamed to “Recommended sources.” This feature looks at your feeds and your Web History if it is enabled and uses them to determine what feeds you might like.

“Only have a 10 minute coffee break and want to see the best items first? All feeds now have a new sort option called "magic" that re-orders items in the feed based on your personal usage, and overall activity in Reader, instead of default chronological order,” Yang added. This feature is available in the Feed settings menu of the feed or folder and replaces the old “auto” ranking system. What's interesting about the magic option is that it improves in time and is based on your own personal preferences. It is also more reliable the more information it has so a greater number of likes and shares allows it to better determine which items you are more likely to enjoy.