Google Reader for Sharing News With and Without a Gmail Account

You’ve set up your Google Reader account and subscribed to some RSS feeds. Now see what you can do with Google Reader beyond just reading. One thing you can do is share items you like with friends. When you first log into Google Reader, there will be a white square with a Start Sharing button.  Click the button. The default setting is that you can share with your Gmail chat contacts. If you use your Gmail account to sign into Google Reader, then you will see a list of friends there. If you use a non-Gmail address to sign in, then you will see no friends.

Click Home. Select a feed to view by clicking the title. Google Reader’s default settings will show you full length items when you click a feed. Scroll to the bottom of an item you like and click Share.

Non-Gmail users will not have automatic contacts with which to share items in Google Reader. To add a friend, click Sharing Settings on the left side navigation menu. It will say, “You are currently sharing with your chat contacts.” Because you don’t have Gmail, you have no chat contacts. Click Change. On the pop up screen select Share with “Friends” and save.

Now you can add friends by their email addresses. Remember, those friends must be using Google Reader to see your shared items.

Click on Home. Select a feed to view by clicking the title. In list view, click the title of an item you want to read. This will expand the item. To share it, scroll to the bottom of the item and click share. By default all your shared items will be viewable by your Gmail Chat contacts.

Your Stuff is on the left side navigation menu. Click Shared Items under Your Stuff to see all the items you’re sharing. You can view these in list view or expanded view also. Just click the tab in the top right to toggle between views. 

Click Home. Select a feed to view by clicking the title. Google Reader’s default settings will show you full length items when you click a feed. Scroll to the bottom of an item you like and click Share.