Feedly – An RSS Reader that integrates Google Reader

I am a long time user of Google Reader.  I’ve tried out different feed readers, but I always come back to Google Reader.  I like the keyboard shortcuts, the synchronization it has over the internet, etc.  Until today, I really haven’t found a good feed reader that integrates with Google Reader.  However, I read about a Firefox addon called Feedly that integrates with Google Reader and also gives you a very nice interface.

After installing the addon, you will see a new button in Firefox for opening up Feedly.  Once Feedly opens, you can tell it to grab your subscriptions from Google Reader if you want.  The nice thing about the newest version of Feedly is that it also integrates with Firefox’s Ubiquity addon.  It adds some extra commands for sharing a page, posting a page to Twitter, etc.

The nice thing about Feedly is that it seems to have the same hotkeys as Google Reader.  I can use my usual ‘j’ and ‘k’ keys for jumping through my unread items, and ‘r’ to refresh the page.  I also like the layout, which has a magazine kind of style to it.  Although, this can be changed to look more like the Google Reader interface if you don’t like it.

Another interesting feature is the recommendations that it gives you.  It will show you on the sidebar people who have shared items that it thinks you should follow.  You can click through to their shared items to see if you think you would like to follow them.  It can be pretty useful for finding out who you should start following if you aren’t following anybody already.

There are more features like Youtube links, Flickr links, etc. but I’ll leave that up to you for exploring.  It’s an interesting addon, and worth a try if you want a reader that integrates with Google Reader.  I’m going to continue to try it out for a week or so to determine whether I want to keep it around.