Make Your Spreadsheet Into a Custom Feed Reader

Did you know that your Google Docs Spreadsheets can be made into a custom feed reader?

Think about all the things you look at on a daily or less routine basis. Would it be useful to have all that stuff in one place?

Here is a quick run through for how to do it, and believe me it is easier than it looks!

Start a new Google Spreadsheet

Start_a_new_Google_Spreadsheet.png

Go to the Insert / Formula / More Formulas menu

Go_to_the_Insert__Formula__More_Formulas_menu.png

Look down the “Google” choices

Look_down_the_Google_choices.png

You can import from HTML, external data, XML, or a feed

To import a feed, simply use =ImportFeed()

To_import_a_feed__simply_use__ImportFeed__.png

For example, see what people are saying about you in Twitter …

For_example__see_what_people_are_saying_about_you_in_Twitter_....png

You will get all the results as they are created

You_will_get_all_the_results_as_they_are_created.png

See the links pointing to your site

See_the_links_pointing_to_your_site.png
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Add a feed to monitor blog mentions

Add_a_feed_to_monitor_blog_mentions.png

In the first cell put the Google Blog Search URL for your search

Import the Titles from the feed

Import_the_Titles_from_the_feed.png

Import the URLs from the feed

Import_the_URLs_from_the_feed.png

Combine the Titles and URLs for each row to create links

Combine_the_Titles_and_URLs_for_each_row_to_create_links.png

You will get a full listing. Optionally shrink your B and C columns

You_will_get_a_full_listing._Optionally_shrink_your_B_and_C_columns.png

For full details on the functions used about, take a look at the Google help documentation here.

I am sure you folks are much better at this than me, how can you use these feed import features in cool ways? Please share in the comments …

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under Google

Comments

5 Responses to “Make Your Spreadsheet Into a Custom Feed Reader”

  1. buy accupril online on September 18th, 2009 9:58 am

    Go on!
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  2. Sarp on September 28th, 2009 5:11 pm

    Hi,

    Thanks for the info.
    A question: What about updating? Wil this add 21st row and so on after every update or will it replace the first 20 rows?

    I tried to find a way to add the updates after the last row to no end :(

  3. andreas.wpv on October 27th, 2009 8:17 pm

    This IS cool, and now you can publish that spreadsheet to your website. MEANS, you can generate content with custom search on other sites.

    There is a certain similarity to yahoo pipes. That seems to work quite different, the results are similar. You pull data off the web and compute them with an array of functions, and can than publish them. Really helpful, really powerful.

    Trying helps, although some things are not very intuitive, in both this Google spreadsheet forms tool as well as the pipes tool.

  4. TopGearStreaming on December 7th, 2009 5:38 am

    LOL @ second comment

  5. Brendan on February 26th, 2010 2:45 pm

    Hi,

    I’m desperate to use the importfeed because it might just solve a big problem I’ve been having recently.

    However, I just cannot get it to work. All the examples I’ve seen also do not work, including those from the Google docs help.

    I can only conclude that importfeed doesn’t work anymore. It just returns ‘N/A’.

    Can you confirm this? It would *really* help me out if someone at least could confirm that it’s Google that’s broken, and not me.

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