Google Reader adds search!

Google Reader just added search! Yay! Suppose you remembered that someone did a cool post comparing PageRank to Play-Doh. Just do a search and you’ll remember that it was Rhea writing on Search Engine Journal:

Search for play-doh

I’m going to be using Google Reader’s new search a lot. πŸ™‚ What are some of the things you’ll do with Reader’s ability to search your feeds?

90 Responses to Google Reader adds search! (Leave a comment)

  1. It doesn’t seem to be compatible with google gears on firefox. The search toolbar wouldn’t appear until google gears was uninstalled.

  2. FINALLY!! The one thing that I have missed for soooo long in reader. At the moment I use the star feature to ‘bookmark’ posts that I want to remember, but having search will make things so much easier.

  3. Thanks Matt and Entire Google team.
    My favourite reader has become more better.
    I already wrote a post about it
    πŸ™‚

    http://techfornovices.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-google-reader-is-new-and-fresh.html

  4. Nevermind, uninstalling and reinstalling gears fixed it.

  5. This is great! Everyone is ecstatic about it. As a use case i don’t think i’ll use it for anything special, just occasional, but the filter options bring some interesting experiments to mind πŸ™‚

    Btw, since the new update, the small feed syndication thingies (you know, the ones you paste a script for) have stopped working. Is anyone else seeing this?

  6. It’s great to see Google Reader continue to grow up. I’ve enjoyed the service (through all its hiccups) and have it as my start page on all computers and browsers. Given how strong a solution it is, and how fast it has gained popularity, why is it still in the Labs? That doesn’t seem to make much sense.

  7. Sounds great.. Now does it query articles caches on google reader or does it quiery the actual RSS feed itself?

  8. This is great! I was shocked Google hadn’t added search to the reader from day one.. I mean it’s Google after all! I think I will use it a hell of a lot!

  9. the search function is particularly useful for me as i have almost hundred feeds.

  10. Great! This feature was definitely missing from the otherwise fantastic tool. Although there is one downside to it: it seems that the Reader stopped working in Opera (under WinXP, if that’s of any importance) after the recent update…

  11. Finally; it was a long wait. But now that search is available in Reader, it was worth the wait πŸ™‚

  12. Matt,

    Judging from number of comments on your latest 5 threads, I wouldn’t say that those threads have been very popular at all ;-(

    – Google Reader adds search! = 4 comments
    – Hack your iPhone: toolchains and cross-compilers = 7 comments
    – Hack your iPhone: install applications with Installer.app and AppTapp = 12 comments
    -Hack your iPhone: back up your data = 6 comments
    – Attack of the gadget posts! = 11 comments

    Maybe its time to do some popular grabbag thread πŸ™‚

  13. Ah. Great news. A time saver πŸ™‚

  14. “What are some of the things you’ll do with Reader’s ability to search your feeds?”

    I’ll stop using google co-op. πŸ™‚

    Maybe.

  15. Wow that`s great! I remember the last time I go crazy, because i couldn`t find a post from the past week. Now that won`t happen again. I think i`ll use the search function many times a day.

  16. For me the most sought out feature from google reader.

    Now I want a way to expose this search box as a widget so that i can post this search box on my blog (I don’t want to use CSE to do this). Similarly expose the feeds I read as a widget.

  17. Idea for new view feature, named: “Original View” (built in viewer of original site)
    In some feeds I don’t want to leave reader to view the original site. Lets say you read one blog and want to add your comment. Instead of opening it to new tab/window I just want to add my comment and continue with next items on my reader. Also, when I’m switched to Original view, the items from current opened feed can be listed in left sidebar. Netvibes has similar feature

  18. Does Feed popularity affect a Webpages’ or WebSites’ standing in either Organic SERPs, News Results or PageRank? πŸ˜•

    It would seem sound for it to have some influence on the keyword rankings in natural search as well as news results.

    Would the TITLE of the feed play an important role in keyword positioning –
    Being the equivalent to backlink anchor text?

  19. I’ve really only just started to use Google Reader, so I’m still getting used to all it’s features and I’ve been wondering why it doesn’t have a search function.

    I’ve been starring things I want to go back and look at again, but that falls down when there are 20 starred posts! Now I can just search for exactly what I want.

  20. Not working with new opera 9.5 :/

  21. I will be using the search function to find posts to link to on my blog. Many-a-times I’ve tried to find a post to reference in one of my online explanations and I couldn’t find it. This will help me lots !
    Becky

  22. I dont think I’ll use it “that” much….but it’ll be very helpful to “recall” a past post/subject I remember, but don’t totally recall….hehehe.

  23. I loved google reader … until some months ago they decided that to no longer hide read items.
    and now with this new version … they go a step further, not only not hiding read items … they stay bold as well, so i cant even see if i haver read the article again.

    keeping track of what articles i have read or not is basic functionality of a reader … search is nice, but not if introducing it takes away basic features.

    kinda disapointed.

  24. Hi Matt:

    I just started using Google Reader yesterday after I read what you said about how it went “kick a$$”. You’re right – I like this thing. Having never used a reader at all (been in the dark ages) – I don’t have much to compare it to but it’s awsome for me now as I’m keeping track of much more informational posts. I never got to use it without search so I can’t imagine it without search. But it’s definiately “kick a$$” as you said.

    E Welch

  25. Where’s the search for the mobile version?

    Ever since I got an iPhone I haven’t had a need to visit the non mobile version of Google reader. I get all my feeds on my phone. (it’s great while driving, laying in bed, or in the bathroom….. j/k)

    They should add the search to the mobile version as well.

  26. Matt

    This is great, I will see now.

    Deb

  27. Interesting, but how about spending some time fixing the search?

    Check out this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=BEAGLES+FOR+SALE+FLORIDA&btnG=Search&num=20&hl=en and let me know if this is what we can expect from Google now?

    One of the sites you show is sinatlling malware/spyware on your computer and some of the results are old spam sites brought back again while sites I expect to see doesn’t even show up anymore. My site that has been online long before Google is totally gone and has been replaced by spam sites.
    There is something very wrong with Google right now πŸ™

  28. This will be great for searching for references and links for blogs plus Google Reader now becomes somewhat of a bookmarking site for your online reading.

  29. Thats funny. Last night I was digging through my feeds trying to figure out who had done a post on Money:Tech. I was a little surprised that Reader didn’t have search.

    I guess you guys really have honed the query intent detection.

  30. There are a few other features that have been added. Like when you expand Google Reader to the full width, there is a My Subscriptions link that gives you access to all your folders/tags. Awesome!

    Thanks Google Reader team!

  31. I have finally got used to Google Reader without search, when I’ve been trying to search for an old article that I’ve seen. It’s great to see it in. It’s also great to see it finally there.

    The fact it no longer say 100+ items not read is another brilliant plus.

  32. It’s about time!! I love Google Reader, but no search was driving me crazy.

  33. Well I suppose this explains why Google Reader doesn’t work in Opera 9 as of yesterday…

  34. “What are some of the things you’ll do with Reader’s ability to search your feeds?”

    Search them? πŸ˜‰

    Seriously though… glad to see this functionality added. My starred items were getting pretty unmanageable.

  35. I now don’t have to save all the articles that I like in Google Bookmarks. I put a lot of articles in Google Bookmarks because I don’t ever want to wonder where that article on SEO that I read the other day is. I can tag it and search it in Google Bookmarks. Now I can just search for it in Google Reader saving me a lot of time.

    Another benefit of search in Google Reader is that you can search your Mind. What I mean by this is, I read a lot of blogs during the week. I can’t remember everything word for word. Now every blog I read is in not only in my head but I can also search using the keywords I remember about the article. This saves me from a lot of stress of trying to remember something for when I might need it. Now I can search every blog I’ve ever read. You can’t do that after you read the newspaper or a magazine. What if you could?

  36. Great news ! It was time.

    A good new feature should be to add a RSS feed at the end of a query in the search results. With that you can extract some nice data from your multiple or unique feed !

  37. Off-topic and all that but….

    I have seen a few posts from people complaining about some of Matt’s recently blogs. Would these people maybe try and remember who’s blog this is, regardless of comment numbers or the fact that you have zero interest in the gadget posts, if you dont like it then read something else.

    Sorry to sound like i’m trying to be some kind of moderator but Matt can blog about whatever the heck he wants too πŸ˜‰

  38. Wow this is exciting πŸ˜‰

  39. Yeaaah! ….not.
    Google continues crusade against Opera users.
    This time you broke it on 9.23 and on 9.50 alpha…

    Yahoo! here I we come.

  40. Google Reader just added search; Yay!
    Google Reader stopping working in Opera; Nay!

    The new search feature might be nice, but currently all I get is the Reader logo, a big white empty space where my feeds should have been and the option to edit my settings. Not only do I not see the new search feature, everything else have stopped working as well…

    It’s not like Opera is some obscure piece of software only used by a handful of people, so I must say it’s a bit disappointing. Though as luck would have it, I was testing the new bloglines beta the other day, so I already have my feeds migrated and ready to use elsewhere…

    This is also being discussed over at the Opera Community (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=191558) and in the “Google Reader Help” Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/google-reader-help/topics).

  41. now that you mention it.. I’m surprised that any Google product would have originally launched without search.

  42. Im off to check it out

  43. You know, I was reading this entry in Google Reader, and didn’t even notice that there was now a search function until I read this.

    Read this entry, moved my eyes upward a little bit, and there it was!

  44. This would be great – if it had not broken in Opera. No Opera users can access Google Reader at all. Quite a big screw up – doesn’t Google do Q&A testing?

  45. Now if they would just hook Reader back up to Gmail, I used to be able to pick my alias (i.e. I could send from my personal mail @gmail.com for friends, and my work email -sent on behalf of- for work), that is still missing. Also sent messages don’t end up in my Gmail sent folder either ;-(

    I love search – I had the Greasemonkey script installed before – but I would also love the more powerful email functionality back too.

  46. Wow..finally !!! πŸ™‚

  47. Matthew Anderson

    “Sorry to sound like i’m trying to be some kind of moderator ..”

    Not at all. You sound like somebody who missed the point of my post. It was about “threads quality” as like that of “search quality” πŸ™‚

    Matt’s recent post should by marked “Only For USA Audience”. And even the USA friends haven’t shown much interest in Matt’s recent posts. That was the point πŸ™‚

    Of course Matt is free to post on his blog in whatever quality or lack of the same as he wishes πŸ˜‰

  48. This is great! A Google’s product without search was so unusual …. πŸ˜‰

  49. Hi Harith

    I must be super tired or something, completely got the wrong idea from your post, have my apologies wrapped in silver!

    Matt

  50. I love it Matt πŸ™‚ I knew it was coming! I use it researching.

    Thank you Google. By the way Matt I got my Google cap yesterday, I had to send it through a friend in Miami since I couldn’t get it shipped to Canada directly. My wife wasn’t thrilled when I tried to were it to bed last night HA HA … I wish they had white πŸ˜‰

  51. Yay Google! I was stoked when I heard the news and thanks for using my post as the example. =) An entire Play-Doh series is currently in the works. What I really like about the search function in Reader is the historical research I can do with it. It might take awhile for pages to hit the SERPs and even then the results are obviously ranked. When I’m looking for sources on a specific topic I want everything I can find from the most credible authorities in the industry. This will help make that process ten times easier. Thank you Google.

  52. Excellent! It was a long wait.

  53. don’t need to reiterate it, but i will…WOOHOO!!!

  54. Matthew

    No worries, my friend πŸ™‚

  55. Somehow, I suspect Matt secretly has a crush on Rhea. Am I wrong Matt? πŸ™‚

  56. This is a great feature. Thanks, Google Reader.

    I will use it mostly to search for mentions of an obscure metal band from the 1980’s called Stiletto (http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=44575). I can hardly believe these guys are my friends.

  57. Very cool. What is most impressive is that it includes the ability to scope down the search to a category or subscription. Kudos to the Google Reader team!

  58. Who wants Google search right now on anything? I just found that out of a result of 15,000 pages, 13,200 are chinese spam sites and there hindreds of thousands in there and they are way up i the search and not on some obscure site at the end of the results.
    So again, who wants Google Search anywhere?

    I don’t see MC posting here so I am hoping that he is busy fixing the broken search algo!

  59. Ah. Just what I have been looking for. This surely is going to come in handy.

  60. George, we’ve been looking at that recently.

  61. testing.

  62. Matt,

    testing what πŸ™‚

  63. Hi Matt!!

    Thanks! I still see a lot of it. Check out this search: site:*.*.cn beagles for example. I happened to click on one of the links and got infected with a virus so they need to goo away fast so other people won’t get infected.

    Thanks for checking it out!! Appreciate it!!

  64. I agree with George. I was searching for some kind of speakers, and I got linked to a *.cn site which had a virus too. Good thing kasversky works well. πŸ™‚

  65. Does igoogle have a search facility yet?

  66. This is great! A really good addition.

  67. Yes, the ability to search even more stuff on the Internet. Yawn. However, when it comes to RSS feeds search is probably the best way to sort through all the repetitive curd that people self-publish these days.

    Still, it is all that crud that keeps me from subscribing to most RSS feeds, and when I do subscribe, I use Firefox, not Google Reader.

    If you are a writer, and you spend lots of time reading web pages and blogs, your writing really will suffer.

  68. Oops! I think I was missing something. Got check this “google reader” tool (you guys invent too much too fast).

    Cheers,

  69. I also thought search should have been added from day one; mainly based on Google’s reputation primiarly being as a search engine.

  70. Hi matt,

    Thought you and your fella’s might find this amusing:

    http://www.pawsitesonline.biz/investing/2007/09/09/new-google-medical-terms/

  71. Chinese spam is back an my site goes from page one to page 100. Why is that? This is the second time this week it does that. What are you guys trying to do? The results I see now for the searches I do are just lousy, and it started about half an hour ago. Poff…. gone and crappy search results show up again. By the way, is there any reason whatsoever to show literally hndreds of pages from one site, one after the other just becayse they happen to have the work in the page? No reason to show all their sub domains with that special word on it, is there?

    Google depression….. πŸ™

  72. nice addition πŸ˜‰

  73. How come my web site an go from page one to the last page in seconds? I haven’t changed anything so why does it get thrown to the bootom of the pile?
    If you need information about the site, let me know so you can check itout. There’s got to be something wrong with what you are doing.

  74. Nice improvment for Googlers to organise their starred feeds that they collected through the Web !

    @SearchENGINESWEB:

    Personnaly, I’ve got more visitors through Google Reader because many webmasters are using Mashups based on Blog Name !

  75. George

    What you descirbed looks like the folks at Google are tweaking their algos and filters. Give it a week or two and things shall settle, usually to be better than before.

    Another explanation is that Matt Cutts was bored of writing about iPhones. So he started tinkering at Google data centers πŸ™‚

  76. Harith,

    Yes I know, but can’t they find someone else to harass for a change?
    I just can’t fathom how you can go from page one to oblivion and I wish I could talk to Matt himself and try to explain, but since Google is a Secret Society that sets any rule they want to it is like talking to a wall. Seems like the rules are: 1. The Algo is always right 2. If the Algo is wrong, rule number one decides the outcome.

    If they continue to harass me like this, I will have to et people go and my life as it is now will change forever, thanks to some malfunctioning algo with no Quality Assurance.
    If you, Google, need someone to have a look at your results before you let it loose, let me know, but I guess since you have the whole world as testers, you might not need another one complaining….

  77. It’s about time!! I love Google Reader.

  78. George

    I promised myself not to defend Matt until he post GrabBag post πŸ™‚ However to be fair he did reply to your call. You see Matt write in special language called “Googlish” which you might need to decode. When he wrote:

    “George, we’ve been looking at that recently.” . That means Google is seriously working on that matter!!!

    Sometimes when the folks at Google do tweaking of algos and filters, the serps would be vigorously affected as you see at present and as reported on webmaster forums. If your site is clean and following GOOG’s webmaster guidelines, you really don’t need to worry much. Your site will show up again after things settle down.

  79. Herith,

    Yeah I know. It is just so frustrating that you one day can have a great listing and the nxt day you can’t be found anywhere. Then in a day or two you are back again, just to diappear again. Whats the logic behind that? I am trying hard to be as clean as possible but maybe I need someone to do the work for me. It’s just that when it is liek this, you hardly can afford food on the table anymore, and hireing is out of the question.
    When you live off of your web site and things like this happen out of the blue then it’s hard to plan for the future and even the present.
    I dudn’t mean to bash Matt! It’s great that he even reponds. Hope the chinese spam sites disappear totally. If someone over at the AdSense team would react, then there would be no reason for them to continue creating these spam sites for profit.

  80. George

    If you can’t afford a SEO, you may wish to try asking for help on this one:

    http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help

  81. Tap…Tap…Is this thing on?

  82. JLH, I’ve just been busy. Coming back around now. πŸ™‚

  83. I would really use it extensively to find out the topics of my interest from my favorite blogs.

  84. Hey Now Matt,
    I really like this feature you showed me.
    Thx,
    Catto

  85. This is really something special, I will use a lot.

    Thank you for the enhancements.

    Any thing you want to share that will happen next??

    Keep up the work.

    Cheers

  86. Wow!I never noticed this function.Althrough i subscribe blog feeds to google reader i never noticed it.It can make my serach even fasted whenever i need…

  87. Matt, it is really useful for us, thank for the enhancement and some added features toO..

  88. It’s great to see Google Reader continue to grow up. I’ve enjoyed the service (through all its hiccups) and have it as my start page on all computers and browsers. Given how strong a solution it is, and how fast it has gained popularity, why is it still in the Labs?

  89. ciao, can iuse some tools from google for displays rss content on my own website?
    thasnk for your time

    simone

  90. How much is Google Reader actually used now?

    I wonder on the future of RSS now that mobiles like the iPhone have such great internet display, and that many websites have mobile displays as well (all it takes is a wordpress plugin).

    Steve

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