Meme Trackers based on Google Reader

Always wondered if the whole item-sharing on Google Reader couldn’t be used to build something like Digg? Well, you’re not alone. Dennes B. Abing launched a new service called Shared Reader that does exactly this. It builds a memetracker like site out of what people mark as shared items in Google Reader.


Just last week a similar application like that was launched called Read Burner. Both seems to have more or less the same set of core features with Read Burner offering a little more when it comes to the timeframe the items should be listed from. On the other hand the design of SharedReader is way better with ReadBurner looking like a really cheap imitation of a really old Google interface.

Both don’t automatically index your shared items but you have to point them to your feed URL, which IMO is a good thing but it definitely won’t help when it comes to filling the database’s of the respective service. They are also more or les still in Alpha stages (or beta according to SharedReader’s logo *shrugs*) so you can’t remove your feed again after having added them once.

Definitely an interesting idea. Let’s see if they will gain some momentum :-)