Share anything in your Google Reader Share feed

I'm addicted to Google Reader on my desktop and my iPhone. I love the ability to share posts and add quick comments; I wish more people advertised their shared posts (here's mine: web version and feed version).

GR is really a work of genius. There are so many fine touches, like navigating a feed list by spacebar, great keyboard shortcuts, search options, etc. The only thing I miss is Yahoo! Pipes compatibility.

I've become so accustomed now using GR's shared items option that I resent being unable to comment on plain-old 20th century web pages.

I dimly remembered there was a way around that problem. Sure enough ...

Official Google Reader Blog: Share anything. Anytime. Anywhere.

... Share anything with a bookmarklet - Just drag this link from the Notes page up to your browser's bookmark bar and click, click, click your way to easy, no-subscription sharing in Reader. You can share any content from any web page, even if the site doesn't have a feed. For even more control over what gets shared, select some text from the page before clicking the 'Note in Reader' bookmarklet and your selection will appear as the item's body. There's also a space for you to add an editorial note when you need to let your friends know why you are sharing something. You can always uncheck 'Add to shared items' if you want to add something to Reader without also adding it to your shared items...

I just tried it. If you look at my shared pages web view on 12/3/08 you'll find an excerpt from a NYT article on a peculiar health insurance initiative.

It's a great middle-path between simply reading and blogging. Now if Google would only add a "starred item" option ...