Google Reader was officially released on October 7, 2005 and since then it has been a part of the Google Labs testing platform which tests all the technologies before they are released as final products. Google Reader received all kinds of updates starting with interface improvements and ending with offline support which was recently introduced in the application. Because numerous users find Google Reader very useful and it works pretty fine, the Mountain View company decided to make the final step by removing the Labs tag attached to Reader's logo. So, Google Reader is not a beta anymore as it left the labs and became available as a stand-alone technology.

If you have never used it, you should give Reader a try because it works pretty amazingly and, trust me, you might become addicted. Besides the excellent manipulation over the feeds, Google Reader now comes with offline support provided by the recently introduced Google Gears. Using this utility, you can transfer all your Reader feeds on your computer and read the subscriptions without an Internet connection. Pretty useful, you might say if you have a dial-up connection.

Moreover, Google Reader was recently improved with 10 languages which gives the possibility to use the product in other language than English. So, Google fans from Spain, France, Italy or China, go and try your own version of Google Reader.

The interesting fact comes from the trends' ability which is supposed to bring valuable information about your reading habit as Nick Baum, Associate Product Manger sustains. For example, you can find out how many subscriptions you have, how many items you read and how many of them are starred. For example, my account sustains that "from your 19 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 3,183 items, starred 0 items, shared 0 items, and emailed 0 items."

Google Reader is available for free with a simple Google account on this link.