The Wonderful World of Widgets: Google Reader Notifier

Posted by Tyler Hawkins on 06/25/07 in Internet, Productivity, Web, Widgets

Google Reader Pic I’ve been horribly addicted to my RSS feeds and news feeds for years. As far as RSS readers are concerned, I’ve tried a lot of them - I’ve used NetNewsWire, NewsFire, Vienna and a bunch of other obscure ones that I can’t even remember. Most recently though, I’ve been using Google Reader, a web-based service.

Google Reader is a free RSS aggregator web app that integrates with your personalized iGoogle home page, and can be accessed from essentially any computer or phone with an internet connection and a web browser. This makes it pretty handy, though it can be annoying to have to open a browser window to check your feeds - it’s an obtrusive step away from the Mac desktop-app experience.

The free Google Reader Notifier widget by Rusty Brick Software aims to bridge the gap between web app and desktop app by displaying how many new stories you have in Google Reader from within the Dashboard.

It sure isn’t the most beautiful looking widget but it does one task and does it very well. Google Reader Notifier is definitely worth a look if you are interested in using Google Reader and want a more smooth and simple way to check your feeds.

Editors note: Ironic that we post this piece first thing this morning as Google Reader has been offline for several hours. NewsFire has been working great for me though! -Jordan Golson

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Tim said on

June 25th, 2007 at 9:59 am

I’ve been using Google Reader for a couple of months now and really like it. I use it in combo with iGoogle which is a convenient place to check RSS feeds, gmail, news, weather, etc. all in one place. Even though I make use of RSS all the time, I couldn’t bring myself to pay money for an RSS reader, and I surely didn’t want yet another floating window on my desktop, so Google Reader fits the bill for what I want.

Jim said on

June 25th, 2007 at 3:39 pm

I use http://www.itsmynews.com i really like them, clean layout, site of the day, and they make it very easy to share a feed you like with your friends.