As I've mentioned a few times on the blog, the conversations in Google Reader are playing an ever-increasing role in my information consumption workflow. The RSS reader's enhancements have not been lost on the makers of Feedly, who have been working on a magazine-like start page for the better part of a year, gaining loyal users who appreciate its enhanced interface for subscriptions. This weekend, the company added support for friends and comments that you have in Google Reader, meaning you are not missing the conversation by using Feedly instead.As introduced back in June of 2008 (See: Feedly Brings New Social Experience to Start Page, Leveraging RSS), Feedly operates as a start page or magazine hybrid, consisting of a cover page, a digest, the latest information, and now, "friends" and "comments".
Comments in Google Reader Shares Display in Feedly
Items that are "Liked" In Google Reader are Highlighted in Feedly
Selecting "friends" shows you items recently liked and shared by your contacts, while "comments" exposes the conversations taking place within shared items on Google Reader from your friends. While not every single share spawns a conversation, many of them are, including those on my shared items feed, where I have frequently seen items gain more comments than the original blog post itself of late.
Feedly has also done more than clone Google Reader's utility. They have interestingly added a tool called "Karma", which, if you enter your Twitter ID, will tap into bit.ly, seeing how many clicks a tweet you posted received, as well as how many retweets. It's a good way to see if your activity on that social network is gaining a following.
You Can Gauge Your Twitter "Karma" In Feedly
You can find Feedly at http://www.feedly.com/. For now, the service relies on Firefox, but we've been promised support for Chrome, and maybe other interfaces, is coming.