google-reader interview questions
Top google-reader frequently asked interview questions
Is there a way to export or archive all the blog posts from a feed in Google Reader?
Sometimes blogs get deleted, but Google Reader still manages to save much of their content.
How can I export those blog entries off of that blog an onto a hard disk?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Google Reader provides stats on the % Read for each feed. The problem is that most of these(for me at least) are at 100% so are not very useful.
I use the 'j' shortcut key to flick through the unread items but this automatically marks the item as read even if I didn't actually read it.
How do I mark an item as 'not new' so that the stats provide an accurate view of my feed reading habits?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Google Reader will shutdown on the 1st of July. It has many important links for me. Can I download my Google Reader data or not?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm looking for a way to mark all items from a specific RSS feed as unread in Google Reader.
Is there a way to do this?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Can I get a single feed combining all of my subscriptions out of Google Reader?
I mean I'm subscribed to 80 something feeds in Reader, and I want to use that as a single feed in another app.
Is that possible? If so how?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Every time I try to add an RSS feed in Fox to Google Reader, it opens the damn Google Reader subscribe window. Any way around this?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Google recently decided that I can't be logged in to my Gmail and Apps accounts at the same time, so I want to move my Google Reader data from one to the other. I know of the "Import/Export feeds" function, but I want to export as much as possible from:
- Feeds
- Starred items
- Trends
- Read/unread status
- Liked items
- Comments
Google must have thought of this when they made the decision, so I suppose there is some way.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Now that Google Reader is being retired, what are my options for consuming RSS feeds on the web and synchronizing with my Android device? Social media sharing is not as important to me as being able to keep up with many disparate sites/feeds in a single place and for the data to be stored in the cloud.
I'm aware of other very similar questions here, but they are old and most of the suggested alternatives have already themselves been shut down.
It should go without saying that services that solely interface with Google Reader are not a viable option (unless they have a plan for viability after Reader gets shut down).
(And, while I don't use one, it would be great if the proposed solution was usable on iOS devices, too.)
Source: (StackOverflow)
This question already has an answer here:
I assume probably most of you use Google Reader for following and reading RSS or Atom feeds. My question is are there any web alternatives that some of you have used and are happy with?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I am familiar with exporting/importing RSS feeds, however I would like some way to backup the thousands of starred items that I have collected in Google Reader.
I don't even necessarily need to be able to export the "blurb" contained with the starred item (although that would be nice), as long as I am able to pull the URL.
How can I do this?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Is it currently possible to send to Google Plus from Google Reader?
Either a Chrome extension or a custom Send To link would work.
Update: This question is now obsolete. With the changes to Reader, Google+ sharing is now integrated.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a number of busy RSS feeds for which I only find a subset of the messages to be of interest to me. Is there a way to configure Google reader to only display certain RSS items that match particular keywords rather than giving me the entire feed?
Source: (StackOverflow)
After trying out some suggestions in similar questions, here are some feature must-haves*:
- Import from Google Reader.
- If it's web based, Firefox and Chrome compatible.
- If it's an application, Linux, Windows, Android and iOS compatible.
- Export to OPML for future migrations.
- Automatically synced with no setup.
- Show only heading and blurb. This is a must on a small screen.
- Possibility to mark items as unread.
- Stability and speed even in the face of millions of users. Sorry small operators, a 10 second loading time is just not acceptable ever.
Nice to haves*:
- Native web interface, rather than browser extensions or full-fledged clients.
- Free as in beer (or perhaps lunch). I'm willing to pay if a convincing demo is available.
- Possibility to show all feeds as one list or separately.
- Keyboard events always go to the feed items list. That is, once I click on a feed I shouldn't have to click somewhere else to focus the items list.
- Mark read when scrolling past an item.
- Option to show entire article. This can be nice on a big screen.
Don'ts:
- Self-hosting.
- Manual syncing.
- Ask for my Google password or other personal information to sync. Seriously?
- Ask for access to my contacts. I'm trying to cut down on the spam, thank you very much.
- Show the actual site. Feeds are the perfect way to get a uniform experience across vastly different web sites, cutting all the *bleep* to get to King Content, omniscient ruler of all the tubes.
Disqualified so far:
- The Old Reader says "There are 31636 users in the import queue ahead of you" hours after starting the import, down from less than 35000 (don't remember the actual number). Clearly not able to handle the influx of users. Update: After more than 12 hours the number has actually gone up to 33333. Somebody at The Old Reader doesn't like me :)
- Bloglovin seems to only provide some sort of alerts when sites are updated, rather than a feed reader. It also seems a bit unclear whether they support Android or not.
On probation:
- NewsBlur:
- Managed to import all sites, not from the exported OPML (simply failed) but on the third attempt when connecting to Google Reader (first it kept saying it was importing for over an hour, then it imported 0 feeds, then it imported what looks like all of them).
- For some reason "merged" two feeds from the same site during import. They now have the the same name, but also refer to the same feed, so the second one was lost.
- HTTPS by default.
- $24 per year minimum.
- Down once already after using it about two days, so I assume nowhere near as stable as Google Reader.
- Can't set the last page of a feed as read by scrolling past it with the mouse, PageDown or Space - you have to click "Next unread" to dismiss those items.
- feedly wants to know my "name, public profile URL, and photo" + "gender and birthdate" + "country, language and timezone" just to import from Google Reader. It seems this is simply a side effect of connecting to and administering the Google Reader account, so I'm giving it a try.
- Nicely duplicates many Google Reader features.
Lots of duplicate entries, even from a single feed. Seems to be fixedSeems to ignore the "save for later" button after the first use. Seems to be fixed.
Verdict: feedly seems to have the best combination of stability and usability. It's changing rapidly, but although each version seems to introduce new minor bugs there have been no major bugs so far, and the general trend seems to be towards more stability rather than feature creep. That's $24 out the window for a NewsBlur account I won't use, but I could always go back by exporting OPML from feedly.
* Google Reader does all of these, and most of them really well.
Source: (StackOverflow)
In Google Reader you can choose to either sort by newest, oldest, or by "magic". What exactly does this last option mean?
Source: (StackOverflow)