neotamizhan's posterous

By Kevin Purdy, 9:00 AM on Tue Aug 18 2009, 8,545 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

Google Reader recently added custom "Send To" controls to its feature list, and we've been looking for the most useful links to feed it. Here are 11 excellent send-to tools you can add to Reader, with more on the way.

"More on the way" because, despite trying to keep our eyes and feed readers in as many places as possible, we're guessing there are a lot of other great URL-friendly webapps that can be hooked into Reader, as these crowd-sourced examples have already proven.

To install one of these Send To items in your own Reader, head to your Settings link from Reader's main page, click the "Send to" tab, then hit the "Create a custom link" button at the bottom. You'll be prompted for a Name, URL, and Icon URL, which you can simply copy and paste from these entries.

Know of a web service, a bookmarklet, or any other webapp that can accept text or items through its URL? You can easily set up a Send To item to feed items from Reader to that webapp. Reader lets you automatically include URL-friendly variables from feed items:

${source}The source of the item
${title}The title of the item
${url}The URL of the item
${short-url}A shortened URL that redirects to the item

So if you knew, for example, that MyAwesomeLolcatApp can re-write the text on any web page with deliberate-but-cute misspellings, you could create a Send To item that has http://myawesomelolcatapp.com/url=${url}, and it'd work just gangbusters.

If you make your own Send To discoveries, by all means, drop them in the comments, or send them to tips at lifehacker.com with "Google Reader" and "Send To" somewhere in the text or subject. Now, onto the neat hacks to make all your RSS items easier to print, save, share, calendar, and even translate:

• Name: Printer Friendly
• URL: http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=${url}
• Icon URL:
  
• What it does: Formats web pages for printing through PrintFriendly, with an eye for less ink usage. (via Zsolt)
  

• Name: Save as PDF
• URL: http://savepageaspdf.pdfonline.com/pdfonline/pdfonline.asp?cURL=${url}
• Icon URL:
  
• What it does: Sends the article to PDF Online, which preps it as a PDF for saving or printing. (via Digital Inspiration)
  

• Name: Evernote
• URL: http://s.evernote.com/grclip?url=${url}&title=${title}
• Icon URL: http://www.evernote.com/favicon.ico
• What it does: Adds the URL and page text as an Evernote item, similar to Evernote's "Web clipping" Firefox add-on or bookmarklet. (via Evernote Blog)
  

• Name: Read It Later
• URL: https://readitlaterlist.com/save?url=${url}&title=${title}
• Icon URL: http://readitlaterlist.com/favicon.ico
• What it does: Moves feed items into your Read It Later list, viewable through the web, Firefox extensions, and iPhone apps. (via Read It Later and zmnatz)
  

• Name: Email
• URL: mailto:?subject=${title}&body=%0A<${url}>
• What it does: Activates whatever default mail client you have installed on your system, and auto-fills the subject with the title and the body with a link. (via Google Operating System and AmaraMetellus)
  

• Name: Full Gmail
• URL: http://mail.google.com/mail/?fs=1&tf=1&view=cm&su=${title}&body=${url}%0A%0AShort link%3A${short-url}
• Icon URL: http://mail.google.com/favicon.ico
• What it does: Emails a link using Gmail—but the full composition window, not Reader's stubbed email tool. Using Google Apps with your own domain name? As Dustin points out, you can replace mail.google.com with the address for your hosted Google apps, and the rest of the code should work. (via Google Operating System)
  

• Name: Google Calendar
• URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=${title}&details=${url}
• Icon URL: http://calendar.google.com/googlecalendar/images/favicon.ico
• What it does: Primarily useful for feeds that deliver dates and times without a lot of added text. For those items, Google Calendar can pick up the information and create new events from them. (via Google Operating System)
  

• Name: Add This
• URL: http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&url=${url}&title=${title}
• Icon URL: http://addthis.com/favicon.ico
• What it does: Pushes an item link to AddThis' site, where you can more easily share it across a bevy of social networks. (via Digital Inspiration)
  

• Name: HootSuite
• URL: http://hootsuite.com/twitter/bookmark-tool-v2?address=${url}&title=${title}
• Icon URL: http://static.hootsuite.com/5-49/images/favicon.ico
• What it does: Pushes items over to the advanced Twitter client HootSuite for editing. (via Dustin)
  

• Name: Identica
• URL: http://identi.ca/?action=newnotice&status_textarea=%E2%80%9C${title}%E2%80%9d%3a%20${short-url}
• Icon URL: http://identi.ca/favicon.ico
• What it does: Shares links through open source Twitter alternative Identi.ca (via Remko Tronçon)
  

• Name: Google Translate
• URL: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=${url}
• Icon URL: http://translate.google.com/favicon.ico
• What it does: Sends blog articles and feed items to Google Translate for, well, translation. Reader can already translate entire feeds to another language automatically, but this allows for passing along the occasional item. (via Matt Cutts)