Recipe Google Reader vs Google Reader Uber

[DoctorOhh]

Google Reader recipe downloads all unread items that are tagged. Google Reader Uber downloads all unread items.

What does tagged mean in Google Reader?

Tagging means that you have added your feed to a folder under the manage subscriptions link.

Every subscribed feed starts out not in a folder. Adding the subscription to a folder tags the feed with the folder name. You can add all your subscriptions into one folder called "news" or be more creative. I just placed each subscription in a folder the same name as the subscription. Of course you don't have to place any subscriptions into folders if you prefer.

I placed my subscriptions in folders because I was using Google Reader Uber which creates a single reading-list. I thought that placing them in folders might make my output look prettier and be more manageable. Well it did pretty it up. Now instead of just the reading-list my feeds were also in sections.

Once I managed all of my subscriptions in Google reader it dawned on me that I was tagging my feeds by placing them in folders (sometime I am a little slow). I went back to try the recipe Google Reader and it looked the same except there was no reading-list section.

The kicker! It turns out that once I placed all my subscriptions in folders I was downloading everything twice using the recipe Google Reader Uber. Once for the big all encompassing Reading List then again as it skillfully grabbed the items in the folders.

To clarify what I'm saying I have attached two screen shots. I used the Google Reader recipe for one and then the Google Reader Uber recipe for the other. The same exact articles were grabbed by both. You can see that the book created by Google Reader recipe is only 111 pages where the book created by the Google Reader Uber recipe is 208 pages. The Uber book is larger due to the fact that I placed everything in folders. Because my subscriptions are in folders the Uber recipe actually went out and grabbed the articles twice.

Bottom line:

• The Google Reader Uber recipe will grab all unread items whether they're in a folder or not.
• The Google Reader recipe will only grab unread items in folders.
  • Update: this recipe will also download unread articles that are not in folders if you mark them with a star.

Using either recipe once you have grabbed your items be sure to open Google reader and click the mark all as read button or they will all download again the next time you download your news.

Tag: Calibre