However, I’ve discovered a fast, easy way to create your own Twitter lists right now via Google Reader – the RSS feed reader and subscription platform.
The lists’ I create with Google Reader allow me to batch multiple Twitter users into a category, say “Google Technology”. And then with the power of Google Reader, I’m to follow the list as a whole, and easily get updated on the latest updates from my Twitter list.
Here’s how I do it (it’s easy to do, trust me…):
1) Think of list you’d like to create based on a subject, category, or group of people – for example, “Google Technology“. This is an actual list I created made up of several different Googlers who have Twitter profiles and write specifically about Google related stuff…
2) Now go to Twitter and find the people you’d like to add to your list. This is easily done by using the “Find People” tab in the upper right hand corner of your Twitter profile.
3) Once you’re at the Twitter profile of the person you’d like to add to your list, look in the right hand column and at the bottom of the right hand column of their profile you’ll see the “RSS Feed of …. tweets” the dotted portion will have the Twitter profile name of that person. Click that RSS Feed link and new window will open.
4) Once you’ve clicked the RSS Feed link, a new window should open > go ahead and select “Google” from your drop down menu, or from whatever menu selection you may be looking at. Ultimately, you are wanting to subscribe to this RSS Feed in “Google” which is “Google Reader”.
5) Once you’ve selected “Google” as your feed subscriber, go ahead and click “Subscribe Now”
6) A new window should now open that gives you the choice to add this RSS feed to either your Google homepage (iGoogle) or Google Reader. For this purpose of learning how to create a Twitter list in Google Reader, go ahead and select “Add to Google Reader”.
7) After you’ve clicked “Add to Google Reader“, you’ll then be taken to Google Reader (also assuming you’re logged in to your account), and you should see a yellowish box appear at the top of the reader with a “Subscribe” button in it – like this:
8. Go ahead and click the “Subscribe” button. You are now officially subscribing to this feed in Google Reader.
9) After you’ve clicked The “Subcribe” button, you’ll see a smaller yellowish window appear confirming you’ve subscribed to the feed. Now click the “Feed Settings” button (see image below)
9) After you’ve click the “Feed Settings” button, a menu should drop down. Scroll all the way to the bottom of that menu and find “New Folder…” and go ahead and click the “New Folder…” option:
10) After you click the “New Folder…” option, and new window will appear. This is where you’re going to name your new list. Name your list whatever you want to call it. For example “Google Technology”
11) Now go ahead and hit “OK”. This will now create a folder that you can see on the left hand column of your Google Reader, and it will now have only 1 feed in it, which is the feed of the Twitter profile you subscribed to.
12) Now go back to Step 2, find more of the people on Twitter that you’d like to add to your list – those whom are relevant to your subject, category, etc… – and follow the same steps.
All you have to do is go to the “Feed Settings…” (Step 9 above) for each new Twitter feed, and when you click the “Feed Settings…” scroll down and find the “Folder” that you created in step 10 above. Just click that folder name in the list, and your feed will automatically be subscribed to that folder.
After you have added all of the Twitter profiles you want to your folder (or list), you will now see that folder name on the left hand side of your Google Reader.
Just click on that folder name, and in the reader pane you’ll see all of the tweets, ranked from newest to oldest, from all of the Twitter profiles in your list.
If you want to create more lists, just follow these instructions! Create as many lists as you’d like…
If you have any questions, or need help, please add comments below and I will answer every one that is posted.
Mobile Phone Access:
And a cool thing about using Google Reader to create your Twitter lists is that you can always access this list on any mobile phone – iPhones, Blackberry, Palms, etc…
Now you can stay in touch with your Twitter list on the go….