Google Reader Shared Items – Are You Sharing?

Some of you might read this Blog posting and ask yourself if I’ve either lost my mind or completely fallen asleep on this functionality. The answer, in short, is possibly and yes. One of the features I’ve always loved about Google Reader is the ability to “Add Star” . This enables you to mark (and save) a news item. When I’m quickly glancing through my river of feeds, this tool acts as a filter for the stuff I really want to focus on and read. Plus, as a bonus, I use it for inspiration to create content for this Blog and the Six Pixels Of Separation Podcast.
In the past little while, I’ve fallen in love with the “Share” function in Google Reader. I had seen it when I first switched over to Google Reader, but I didn’t pay it the proper attention. Here’s what happens: if you find a news/feed item that you like (and you think others will like), all you have to do is hit the “Share” button at the bottom of the news item and Google Reader places it on a public Web page that looks like a minimally designed Blog page.
You can view mine here: Mitch Joel’s Shared Items – Google Reader.
What is the best part about this Google Reader Shared Items page? Yup, there’s a RSS (subscription) function. So, if you like the stuff you read here in the Twist Image Blog, odds are you’ll love this behind the scenes look into what news, insights, Blog postings, etc_ inspire the content here.
What more would I love to see on this Mitch Joel’s Shared Items page? Obviously the ability to customize the look and feel (but only a little bit), and it would be awesome if I could change the URL from: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/01165003178775753405 into something personal like: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/mitchjoel.
Getting a tad more technical, it would be cool to create some channels where I could aggregate a bunch of individual Google Reader Shared Items pages into one feed that I could subscribe to. My guess is Christopher S. Penn (Ninja) will chime in here with some quick fix or Yahoo! Pipes play to make this easy and doable.
In the meantime, if you’re using Google Reader, I’d love to know if you’re digging the Shared Items function and if you ever look at your own Public Page to see what’s got you interested and inspired.