Tips | Skeptic Geek

Remove Duplicates in Google Reader

On August 18, 2009, in RSS, by Mahendra Palsule

If you've recently started following a lot of people in Google Reader, you might have noticed a lot of duplicate items being shared.

I have experimented with a Greasemonkey user script that purports to remove duplicates. Some users have reported problems with the script's earlier versions, so I suggest you use caution if you decide to use it. You should backup your Reader subscriptions as an OPML file via Import/Export under Settings.

I have found that it is filtering my duplicates excellently so far. Install the Google Reader Filter script (you'll need Greasemonkey script support in your browser) and let me know if it works for you as well.

The script does more than filter duplicates. You can filter out unwanted content or highlight wanted content based on keywords. Pretty useful!

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Tagged with: google reader • tips

How to Selectively Show FriendFeed Tab in your Facebook Profile

On August 15, 2009, in Social Web, by Mahendra Palsule

With a lot of FFers now starting to use their FB accounts for both personal and FriendFeed connections, here's what I found useful.

Most of my non-FriendFeed Facebook friends don't know anything about FriendFeed. So, I wanted to hide the FriendFeed app tab from my profile for those Facebook friends. At the same time, I wanted my FriendFeed and web-savvy connections to see the FriendFeed tab, so they could easily see my FF activity stream. Here's how you do it on Facebook:

1. As a first step, create a Friend List in Facebook for all your FriendFeed friends. I've called this FriendList "FriendFeed". Add all your FF friends to this list.

2. In Facebook, go to Settings, Application Settings. Edit the settings for the FriendFeed application.

3. In Privacy, Select Custom. Then choose Some of my friends, where you can type the name of your Friend List, in my case, "FriendFeed". OK to close the dialog.

Viola!

Now, only FFers see the FriendFeed tab, everyone else doesn't see it at all.

Posted via from SkepticGeek’s Posterous

Tagged with: facebook • friendfeed • tips

Using Google Reader with PostRank

On August 13, 2009, in RSS, by Mahendra Palsule

Now that I am heavily using Google Reader, I decided to check out how it works with PostRank:

The PostRank Google Reader Extension brings the power of PostRank filtering into Google Reader. It applies PostRank analysis to all your existing feeds once installed. PostRank scores will be displayed for all posts, and you can adjust the PostRank filtering level in two different ways.

The nice part is it also works with shared items from people you follow. So if you're faced with a very large number of items shared by those you're following, you can use PostRank to effectively filter the posts based on rank.

Posted via from SkepticGeek’s Posterous

Tagged with: google reader • tips