Share links with me on Google Reader

I’m a big fan of Google Reader, but the process for adding friends is pretty awkward, and seems to be impacting its uptake – at least for me and people on my social network.

Anyway, the friends shared items functionality is awesome and I can’t get enough of it. Please add me as your friend! I don’t care if you’re a complete stranger – if you’re into UX, then we’ve got something to talk about. Here’s how:

First, from within Gmail, you’ll see the Google chat area in the left hand column:

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Enter my email address – harrybr@gmail.com – as shown below. You have to ‘invite me to chat’. Conceptually this makes no sense whatsoever, but this is what you have to do to become friends on Google Reader.

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Later on, when you log in to Google Reader, you’ll see I’m there in your friend list. Now we can share links and comments. Hooray, now we can enter an endless cycle of semi-work-related group procrastination!

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