For many people, Twitter is as much about the links you share as it is about the discussions that ensue in the microblogging community. For that reason, tools that automate posts to Twitter via RSS are among the most popular Twitter clients in use. While many people, including me, post their new blog entries to Twitter by hand, a good portion of Twitter activity is machine-based. For example, I share bookmarks I make on Delicious, as well as my native FriendFeed entries or YouTube videos, to Twitter. This evening, a new tool called "Reader2Twitter" debuted, letting you post your Google Reader shares to Twitter, without using a middleman, such as FriendFeed.
Since I am an avid Google Reader sharer, I have thus far chosen not to post my shares to Twitter. I'm sensitive to the noise factor, and don't want to drown those who just wanted to get connected (while those in FriendFeed and Facebook can hide the updates). But with the "Reader2Twitter" tool here, I opted to create a new account, just for this feed, meaning people who choose Twitter as their discovery engine won't necessarily be left behind.
You can find this new account at http://twitter.com/lgshareditems.
As you can see, each of my shared items in Google Reader is passed to Twitter in near real-time, displaying the headline and a shortened URL, powered by Reader2Tweet.
To get started, go to http://reader2twitter.appspot.com/, enter your Google Reader Number ID, and connect to Twitter using OAuth. Following this, share in Google Reader like you always have, and Reader2Twitter will do the rest.
A very cool tool, and yet another proof point for the benefits of Pubsubhubbub.
Note: Since this article, I've been notified that signing up will post a Tweet on your behalf, saying: "RT @gr2t: Reader2Twitter is an app that real-time sync your Google Reader Shared Items to your twitter. The app url is http://j.mp/gvrOv". If you do not want this message, you should not test the application. (Until the developer makes this optional)