Google Readers Hidden Features

Last night I decided to clean up my feed reader a little, enough people asked about finding the “inactive feeds” view in Google Reader that I figured I would put it here. First I like Google Reader it has a nice clean interface, is available from any computer, and presents my feeds to me in a way that I can process them quickly easily finding the items I want to read and ignore the rest.  There are also many apps that synchronize with google reader for mobile or offline reading.  For me it is Feedler on iOS, and NewsRob on Android which allow me to keep up when I am not in front of my computer.  I also used the starred items feature to mark stuff to read later, and I also share items in Google Reader and follow other people who share. Now back to the topic at hand, cleaning up feeds that no longer provide content.   In Google Reader on the upper left hand side look for the “Trends Link” Where you can find out all kinds of interesting things like this You can also see the statistics for each feed you subscribe to, I look at this sometimes and when I see I am reading 1% of a particular feeds posts I can easily determine it is clutter and unsubscribe.  (As a side note, the only item in my reader which is consistently at 100% of items read is the Daily Dilbert Feed). Finally on the right side you have your Subscription Trends view where the second tab will show you your inactive feeds (I also like the obscure feed view) and allow you to unsubscribe using the trash can Before anyone asks yes I know about Feedly I have tried it a few times, I find that I can get through my feeds more efficiently in Google Reader, but if you have not looked at Feedly it integrates with Google Reader and is worth a look Google Reader is a lot more then just a feed reader, if you are using it already take a little time to explore some of it’s social features, and other tools that can help you find the information you are looking for.  You can follow my Google Reader Shared items here.