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Thursday, June 21, 2007

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How is it possible Google Reader doesn't have search??

Posted @ 2:51PM

Categories: Search | Tips

I was searching for this post by Jeff Atwood and this got me thinking that it's crazy Google Reader doesn't have search! I think when you start using Google Reader you should automatically, and behind the scenes, get a Google Co-op search engine that tracks the sites you are subscribed to and let's you search only those sites.

Ah ha! It just so happens you can do this yourself. All you need to do is:

Export your Google Reader OPML
Create your own Custom Search Engine (CSE)
Import your OPML file into your CSE
1. Browse to Google Coop
2. Click the control panel for your CSE
3. Click the Advanced link
4. Under "Annotations" browse to your OPML file and click Uplolad

Presto! You now have a now have a Google Search Engine of your subscribed blogs. Let's see how well it works on the aforementioned post.

Search from Google.com

Search with Google Custom Search Engine (CSE)

Sweet! Worked like a charm, now if Google would just do the leg work for us. :-)

Comments [8]

permalink

Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:13:44 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

I recommend you use Raúl Ochoa Greasemonkey script: http://rau1.com/blog/2007/06/11/google-reader-gears-search-english

It's a way better solution...

fabiopedrosa

Friday, June 22, 2007 6:39:50 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

fabiopedrosa,
Thanks for the link. That looks interesting though wouldn't have worked in this case as the post was written in 2005. According to my GR Trends I've read 489 items over the last 30 days and since Gears has to cache all items I'd probably only get a few weeks worth of items to search.

Steve Trefethen

Sunday, June 24, 2007 3:22:35 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

While I appreciate the response to my blog post -- this is a ridiculous bit of work that typical users will not resort to. It's a bad-aid approach to something that Google should have solved a long, long time ago.

Eric Lander

Sunday, June 24, 2007 4:45:31 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Eric,
Have you followed these steps? It's a total piece of cake, really.

Steve Trefethen

Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:50:25 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

I've just been looking into adding a search to my Google Reader and have been stumped at the Google Custom Search Engine bit, which you have to do to get the Greesemonkey script to work. I've now happened across this blog post and I think it helps a little more than any explanation of what to do on other sites, but how does one import the OPML file into my Custom Search Engine?

Rich

Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:08:08 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hi Rich,
I've modified this post to provide explict directions as to how to import your OPML.

Steve Trefethen

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 11:02:54 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Ok, I never saw that Advanced tab! Many thanks for this instructions, it's a working now!

Rich

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 6:14:13 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hi Rich,
I'm glad I could help. Thanks for pointing this out as I think the directions are much clearer now.

Steve Trefethen

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