---
title: "Google Reader May Evolve Into Read/Write App"
date: 2007-01-14
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2007"
    url: "/tag/2007.md"
---

# Google Reader May Evolve Into Read/Write App

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101549im_/http://rww.readwriteweb.netdna-cdn.com/images/google_reader_jan07.jpg)James Corbett has [ an interesting post](https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101549/http://eirepreneur.blogs.com/eirepreneur/2007/01/google_rewriter.html#comment-27725206) speculating that Google Reader might become a ‘read/write’ app over the course of 2007. Says James:

> “The addition of support for tagging and [link blogging](https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101549/http://scobleizer.com/2007/01/03/25000-items-read-on-google-reader/) were the warning shots but the coming months will see Reader evolve into a fully fledged Reader/Writer (let’s call it ReWriter). Google ReWriter is the first product that will tie the major pieces of the Read/Write web together – RSS/ATOM (feeds), OPML, Social-Bookmarking/Tagging (folksonomies), Attention and Microformats.”

I agree that [Google Reader](https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101549/http://www.google.com/reader/) has been adding some fantastic functionality over recent months. Indeed I now use Google Reader as my main RSS Reader – just last week I loaded it up with a bunch more OPML files and RSS feeds. Also by reading the [official Google Reader blog](https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101549/http://googlereader.blogspot.com/), you can tell the engineers are passionate about building up and adding new things to the product – something sadly missing in other top online RSS Readers, some of which have stayed largely the same for 2+ years now.

It remains to be seen whether Google Reader will add more ‘writer’ features over 2007 – Google has to be careful the product doesn’t become too geeky and experimental. You can quickly scare off people with talk of OPML and microformats (guilty!). But I think Google Reader is the most interesting online RSS Reader around right now, so if they can integrate the ‘writer’ functionalities into the product in a way that they’re very easy to use… the RSS reading market could come alive again.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_reader_readwrite.php))*