Google Reader as a Lifestream Search Engine

by Phil Baumann on September 15, 2009

Google Reader is becoming more than just a reader. With it’s addition of social features like comments and Likes, it’s taking on more of a social-aggregation service. It’s not perfect, nor do its social elements make a great social networking service. Still, its search options continue to expand and third-party applications make sharing easier.

So far, Google Reader offers two features which allow you to follow the lifestreams of other users and burn feeds for searches in other services. Currently, the options are limited, but since they both include Twitter, you may consider using Reader to house your monitoring activities (not to mention you can backup your own Twitter statuses, since Twitter at this time isn’t very reliable for that).

Here’s a quick screencast demonstrating more of Google Reader’s search features (open in full-screen for better viewing):

By the way, I set up a Twitter account – @PhilFeed – as a place to port my shared items and other findings around the web. Rather than blasting my followers on @PhilBaumann, you can opt in to follow @PhilFeed and you’ll get those items in your tweet stream (jut know that it’s not a very social account).

I’m curious to see if Google Reader will add more services, like FriendFeed or Posterous.

Are these features useful to you?