Google had redesigned Google Reader, making it much more user friendly. If you monitor the blogosphere about the buzz, many bloggers — who are also webfeed consumers — are now migrating from Bloglines to Google Reader.

If you have been using either Gmail or Bloglines, you should be familiar with the new interface. I think this is also one of the reasons why people migrate.

Persistent.info has an idea — a cool hack — including the script for the implementation, to integrate Google Reader into Gmail. It works under Firefox browser only, because it uses Greasemonkey extension — an addon that could help modify layouts and interface of a web page in Firefox instantly.

The script will add a new menu named “Feeds” in Gmail. When clicked, Reader’s list view is loaded on the right.

Looking at the comments available on the site, I saw some complaints about the script. Some failed to make it work. Others resulted in browser crash. If you do not have the guts to test things out, at least wait until a stable version is available for public use.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 available

Microsoft is now pushing out Internet Explorer 7 to all Windows users via a required update. It means that all Windows users suddenly will have RSS aggregator installed on their machines.

When it comes to RSS, Microsoft says:

Tired of looking for the latest news and information on the web? Internet Explorer 7 can deliver the latest updates from your favorite sites to you. Subscribe to RSS feeds through Internet Explorer 7, and get instant access to personalized sports, news, and shopping feeds that keep you up to date on the latest information online.

There is a quick tour and an overview of what features are currently in Microsoft IE7 and its integration with RSS. It highlights some of the benefits of using RSS as the content syndication and consumption tool.

Ping Google Blog Search through FeedBurner

Bloggers can now have FeedBurner ping Google Blog Search for them by enabling the service under PingShot configuration.

Of course, you have to be a user of FeedBurner to use this feature. However, if you run a weblog such as WordPress, you can add Google ping service (http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2) into the Write option.

40 percent of Britons online use RSS

Forty percent of Britons online say they receive automatic news feeds to their browser or desktop. Exciting number we got here. It means Internet users are more and more depends on feeds as the syndication technology for consuming content.

The sad fact is, 69 percent of Britons online have never heard of Really Simple Syndication and 67 percent has never heard of RSS.

Well, perhaps more important is the adoption of the technology. It is not surprising that the awareness of the term is low because most applications don’t care to explain to end-users about what the technology that works behind them. In a way, that is good. It means RSS is so transparent consumers could use it without knowing it.

Google blog search pinging service

Google has launched the Google Search Pinging Service, which is a way for individual bloggers and blog platform to inform Google of content changes. These updates are then published and shared with other search engines to allow them to discover the changes to your weblogs.

Additionally, Google Blog Search will add submitted weblogs to the list of blogs it needs to crawl and index.

To use this service, either add http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 to the list of your hosts to ping, or ping it manually.

RealNetworks launches RSS readers

RealNetworks announced something that’s a departure from their video/audio offering — RealTime, a hybrid desktop/browser system for reading Web-based feeds.

RealTime can be used purely on the Web as an online feed reader, but it also has the Windows desktop client counterpart.

When RSS aggregators become ad networks

Steve Rubel predicts that RSS will venture down a similar path as the pay-per-click advertising. It will delivers a very precise way to target consumers at the exact moment they are “in market” for certain products and services.

He writes, “What if Bloglines could identify for you the tech feeds have the most engaged subscribers? In other words, they could show you the feeds have not only the most subscribers but also the readers that actively click-through on embedded links. Bloglines then could create a special “tech deals” feed for an online retailer like Amazon and offer it to these subscribers to opt into. Or, they can turn themselves into an ad network and make it easy for marketers to buy across several feeds at once and then split the revenue with the Long Tail publishers.”

News Snacks personal feed reader

SpotBack has released a new personal feedreader News Snacks that organizes all your feeds in one place. Users can manually add feeds, import feeds from OPML, select from predefined sources, customize layouts and grab other users’ setup.

There are also “Tasty snacks” to choose from that displays headlines from popular news sources.

SpotBack is a personal news site with other notable feature including tag tracker.

New Google Reader

Google has updated their feed reader, Google Reader. It reminds me about Gmail. All version dumped items from different feeds into one view, but no more. Now you can arrange feeds into directories and read them separately.

Other than a new interface, the web reader also features some new functions that are useful for reading feeds, such as auto removal of dupes.

If you haven’t been trying Google Reader, now is probably the right time to do so.

Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (APML) is a new standard that is being worked on to convert the rought foundation about personal attention profile into agreed standard.

According to the site, APML will allows users to export and use their own personal Attention Profile in much the same way that OPML alows them to export their reading lists from feedreaders.

The idea is to boil down all forms of Attention Data — including Browser History, OPML, Attention.XML, Email etc — to a portable file format containing a description of ranked user interests.

The user of this in real-life applications will be endless, but for now here are some examples:

• Keep control of your own Attention Profile
• Ask Amazon to export an APML file of your Attention Profile (the same one they use to recommend books to you) so you can move to another bookstore (just like OPML lets you easily switch feed readers).
• Upload your APML file to Digg to get a customized view of Digg stories that match your interests.
• Use your APML to filter incoming alerts
• Submit your APML to an Attention Brokerage service to allow synchronized access to your Attention Profile across all APML compatible services. In this way all your sites and services can keep track of your changing interests.

This standard will not compete with AttentionTrust’s service, and it is interesting where this project will go.

[APML]