If you use Google Reader to mange your web feeds, you might have noticed a couple of additions have appeared. In fact, it’s pushed my feeds to within an inch of the bottom of the left-hand column.

So what’s the big deal that’s relegated my feeds to the bottom left-hand corner of my browser window?

First up, there are new “Popular items” and “Recommended sources” in an “Explore” section, which is supposed to provide interesting content from the web based on your own reading preferences, reader trends and opt-in web history. Presumably, this is something that learns over time — I’m not quite sure how “Bike Commuters” got into my recommended list.

Secondly, there’s a new sort option for subscribed feeds called “magic” that reorders items based on a user’s personal usage and overall activity. Again, this learns over time.

It will be interesting to see whether this improves the Reader experience or not. It will depend on how many feeds you are subscribed to and how you like to organise and read them.

Via