iRadar: How To Use Google Reader As A Bookmarking Service

Sunday, December 12, 2010

How To Use Google Reader As A Bookmarking Service

How To Use Google Reader As A Bookmarking Service: "

google bookmarking I’m constantly trying to discover better bookmarking services. Evernote and Diigo are two very capable and excellent tools I’ve learned to love over time. The respective iOS apps leave something to be desired however, as they won’t save all items for offline use on my iPod Touch. Thus, I was prompted to search for another bookmarking system, and found that RSS feeds may just be the next best thing.

I was highly tempted to try using Twitter Lists as my new RSS reader, but I’m not so fond of being able to only see the title and having to click on the links for the actual post that will load with distracting ads. If you’re looking for a service that just works and is minimalist without sacrificing features, Google Reader may just be the answer.

Using The ‘Note In Reader’ Bookmarklet

google bookmarking

When you’ve logged into Google Reader, head to the Notes section on the left sidebar. Just drag the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar. If you use Google Chrome, you can also copy the link to the bookmarklet, right-click on the address bar, select Edit Search Engines and add it as a new search engine to give this bookmarklet a keyword for faster access.

Now anytime you find some interesting article you want to save, highlight the interesting parts and use the bookmarklet to add notes and tag your findings.

For example, I use this method to bookmark images with great typography for inspiration, and the images are neatly stacked in the appropriate tag.

google bookmarking site

Since I use Zscreen, an open-source screencapture tool that uploads the image immediately to Imageshack, and then set it so that the HTML code for the full, uploaded image is copied to my clipboard automatically, I paste that into the box above the notes section.

google bookmarking tool

This method of uploading images to Imageshack ensures that even if the webpage isn’t accessible in the future, you will still be able to see it in your river of archived notes feed.

Why Use Google Reader?

You’re probably wondering why you’d want switch from, say Diigo or Evernote, to Google Reader as a bookmarking service. Here are a few benefits from using Google Reader:

Ability to search all your bookmarked items, in addition to searching your favorite parts of the web (your subscriptions).

google bookmarking tool

Ability to bookmark what you highlight, which is basically caching the post so you can retrieve even if the original website is down.
Ability to keep items unread.
Add notes when you’re bookmarking items to remind you why you liked it in the first place. If you’re looking to integrate these notes with your browser, Diigo might be your best bet as you can place sticky notes anywhere on a website and see your notes next time you visit the page with Diigo’s plugins.
Archive feature: Even if you’re actively looking at an article anymore, you won’t have to delete it. Archiving enables you to still be able to search the topic.
There’s no limit to how many items you bookmark: Since your noted items become a feed, you won’t have to worry about reaching certain limit for uploaded content every month. If you’re like me and save too much content that you’re constantly very close to reaching your Evernote monthly quota, you might appreciate this benefit.
Access all your feeds offline on the go with MobileRSS for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. I’m pretty sure any mobile RSS reader could fit here.

google bookmarking tool

Ability to email and share items on Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, etc.

google bookmarking

You can usually just see the relevant post’s text in your subscriptions and not too many ads.
Being web-based, there’s no need to sync anything like you have to, with desktop RSS readers. You’ll be able to access your favorite articles on any computer or mobile device.