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Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice, although sometimes is annoys me. I’ve collected a list of some features that are not immediately obvious to a casual reader.

Unsubscribe From An Entire Folder

When you go to the “Settings” page of Google Reader and select “Tags” you can choose to delete a tag, but that’s exactly what it does - delete the tag. The feeds that were in the folder just become uncategorised.

If you want to unsubscibe from all the feeds in a folder, you need the “Subscriptions” tab. Filter by the folder name, select all the results and then click the unsubscribe button. Much quicker than going through them one-by-one.

Thanks to Maki for this tip via Twitter.

Aggregate Feeds By Folder

You can create a shared feed out of all your items, your starred items or just a single folder at a time. You do need to go to the settings page and make your feeds public before they can be accessed by other tools (like Yahoo Pipes or even Google Spreadsheets) but that might not be an issue for you.

Google Reader’s feed aggregation is not a sophisticated as, say xFruits, but it’s really quick and easy.

Is There Really A Use For OPML?

OPML is an XML specification for sharing feeds. It has yet to take off in a big way, but it’s used by other feed readers and a host of sites that want to help you find relevant content or even build your own website around your feed subscriptions.

You can get an OPML file containing all your subscribed feeds by using the “Import/Export” tab on the settings menu.

OPML support is in its infancy and Ryan Tate has some great suggestions for the Google Reader team.

Have you got any other tips for Google Reader? Add a comment below.

Do you find yourself checking the same handful of blogs and websites everyday? I bet your list of must-read sites is growing quickly and you want to get a fast, unfussy flow of relevant information at a rate that you control...

That’s exactly what RSS does for you!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication but that’s not important. What is important is just what it can do for you... and that is save your precious time!

When you visit one of your regular favourite websites, look for an orange RSS icon a bit like this (there’s a huge orange one at the top right of this page) which means that the site provides an RSS feed. Click on it and you will be prompted to choose your feed reader...

OMG!

“I don't have a feed reader! And I don’t know what one is! It’s all too hard and techie!”

Stop being a drama queen, this bit is easy.

Just like you have email software to read emails, there is software to read RSS feeds. Like email, the software can live on your computer (like Microsoft Outlook) or on a website (like Hotmail). Relax.

So what software should you use? I use Google Reader and I love it, well mostly, but there are lots of others. If you use Microsoft Outlook for your email, you can get a free plugin to read your feeds from it too.

There now, that was easy.

But What Does It Do For Me?

RSS allows you to deal with web pages just like you deal with email. You can:

• Only see brand new pages
• Sort feeds into folders
• Flag entries for followup
• Read on your mobile phone
• Share pages with friends

There are loads of other cool techie things you can do with RSS feeds, but let’s start with the simple things.

Happy RSS Day!

This article was posted for RSS Day, an event dedicated to increasing awareness of RSS and getting it into the mainstream. I hope you enjoyed it and don’t forget to spread the word.

Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed for other great tips.

If you have any questions about RSS, ask them below.

Photo by KellyK