If you are constantly checking your Google Reader account for new feed items, then you probably need something to let you know when there are new items to be read.  I subscribe to so many feeds that there is usually something always unread, but it is still nice to have a little reminder for me to open Google Reader.

GrNotify is a program that will sit in your Notification area and notify you when you have items that need to be read.  When you hover your mouse over the icon, it will give you information of which feeds have unread items.  If you left click on the icon, it will send you to Google Reader.  If you want to quickly subscribe to a feed, then right click on the icon and click “Subscribe to feed” and enter in the feed location.  You can customize the interval at which it fetches the information, and whether you want it to pop up a notification bubble or not.

There are other options as you can see from the screenshot above.  It is a nice program to keep running in your notification area to give you a reminder to open up that Google Reader account and start reading some unread items.