Google Reader updated; good for podcasts too

Feed reading is becoming all the rage these days and it's no surprise: consumer information consumption is clearly changing. I remember when Google Reader came out last year and I thought it was solid for basic aggregation and reading of RSS content. For most folks it's fine; I often look for advanced features that assist with blogging.

The new Google Reader is looking even better with the recent refresh. Google might have added features along the way in the past 12 months or so; I could have missed them. This time around, I see some nice features I either missed the first time around so long ago or were recently added. For instance:

• Simply scrolling past items marks them as read by default (you can turn this feature off, however)
• Counts of unread items in your feeds now appear
• You can quickly and easily share or publish interesting items.
• Podcasts can be streamed via the Google media interface. Here's the latest MoTR podcast for example:
  

I'll watch for additional developments as Google Reader isn't quite powerful enough for my needs; but for most people, it's a great way to read and manage content at any mainstream web browser. Is anyone hooked on Google Reader for their content?

Comments

[Paul Howard]

The new release is indeed a much improved version but it is still lacking an auto update feature. Bloglines has had this for a long time and I think a lot of people will be wanting that addded as soon as possible.

I was using Bloglines until today but have switched to Googles offering for the time being. Lets hope they keep updating it and making it better as it took them months to release this second version.

[Marina making pictures]

I like the new funktionality of google reader.
The new taging feature is awesome, I think.

Thank you for sharing this story with me !

[Sketchee]

They've had podcasting support for a while. Really got me started in listening to podcasts