Google on Friday launched a beta version of its news feed reader, Google Reader, which aggregates feeds from blogs and other websites, reports CNET. The tool has a search feature that finds feeds by topic or site. Users can then subscribe by clicking a subscribe button adjacent to each search result, and they can create a reading list that they can sort and organize. Users can also post the news items to their blogs or email them to others directly through the Reader site, according to Google.

Google Reader uses Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Atom technology, two of the more popular feed formats. Users of Google Reader must have a registered account with Gmail, Google's online email service.

In August, the Google News aggregation service incorporated news feeds, which were limited to the seven subject areas designated by Google News. Google introduced the new reader service at the Web. 2.0 conference in San Francisco.