Google Reader Trends

Google has released personalized statistics for Google Reader.  These show interesting information about your subscriptions in your Google Reader account.  Here is the overview from my account:

From your  312 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 11,450 items, starred 18 items, and shared 3 items.

I have some problems about these stats:

• I haven't actually read 11,450 items.  I have marked that number of items as read.
  Ideally, this count would only show the number of items that were actually marked as read.  This wouldn't include when you do "Mark All As Read", and should only include items where they are selected for some period of time, before going to the next item.  (This would approximate the user actually reading the item.)


• The number of starred items is not accurate.  It actually displays the number items that are starred at the end of the 30 day period, that hadn't been starred at the beginning.
  This doesn't include the number of items that were starred, and where the stars were removed.

Maybe my usage pattern is different than other people's. Here is how I use Google Reader.

1. I select either "All Items" or a tag, and skim over the items using the 'n' key to go to the next item.


2. When an item interterests me, and it is pretty small, I will read it there.


3. If I want to take a closer look at a later time, I will star the item.


4. If a single feed has more than ~50 items unread, I will usually mark the whole feed as read.

How are other people using Google Reader?