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Google Reader Widget icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 2.7.1

Google Reader Widget

In order to get your shares, you need to know your user id according to Google Reader. This can be found by going to the ‘Shared Items’ link, and copying the 20 digit number at the end of your shared items link.

Active installs20+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d130▲ +20.4% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score24/100At risk
All-time downloads15.3KSince Mar 2008
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 2.0.2PHP any
Downloads · 7d29▲ +26.1% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Google Reader Widget shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 20+ sites and was last updated 18 years ago, and scores 24/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (20+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 17 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 2.7 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

51015Jul 5Aug 18Oct 2
Yesterday5
Daily average (1y)3
Peak day21Sep 14, 2026
Last 12 months1.1K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Google Reader Widget stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
google >100 10,000 Best google plugins →
Google Reader >100 1,073 Best Google Reader plugins →
reader >100 3,175 Best reader plugins →
widget >100 10,000 Best widget plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.9100.0%

About Google Reader Widget

From the official readme · v1.9.1

Description

Requirements

  • WordPress 2.2+ or 2.0.x/2.1.x with WordPress Widgets
  • PHP 4.3.0 or greater (needed for function file_get_contents)
  • Your Google Reader User ID

Features

  • Displays your latest shared items from Google Reader
  • Completely customizable display
  • Caching for large traffic sites

User ID

In order to get your shares, you need to know your user id according to Google Reader. This can be found by going to the ‘Shared Items’ link, and copying the 20 digit number at the end of your shared items link.

So something like:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/02774557510273097991
Where 02774557510273097991 would be my user id.

Formatting

There are 3 parts needed to format the output.

The first part, called items start in the admin panel, is the first part of the widget after the title. For the default formatting, this is just <ul>.

The second part, called items end, is the ending of the widget. By default, this is:
</ul>
<a href=”%googlereader%” style=”float:right;”>Shared Items</a>

The third part is what is called for each item. By default, this is:
<li style=”list-style-type: none;”><a href=”%link%”>%title%</a></li>

The premise of calling each value is this:

  1. start
  2. item
  3. item
  4. …
  5. item
  6. end

The formatting for items is:

  • %link% – Link to the item
  • %title% – Title of the item
  • %site% – The title of the site the item is from
  • %sitelink% – The link to the site the item is from
  • %number% – The number of the current item
  • %comment% – The comment (note) made when sharing an item

The formatting for start and end is:

  • %googlereader% – Link to your Google Reader shared page
  • %count% – Number of items shown

Installation

  1. Download googlereader.zip
  2. Extract and upload googlereader.php to the plugins/ directory
  3. Enable Google Reader in the Plugin admin panel
  4. In widget admin panel, place Google Reader in the sidebar, and edit it to enter your user id

Screenshots

Default Display
Default Display
Admin Panel
Admin Panel

For developers

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Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

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FAQ

Google Reader Widget: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 3, 2026

Is Google Reader Widget free?

Yes. Google Reader Widget is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Google Reader Widget safe to use in 2026?

Google Reader Widget shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 20+ sites and was last updated 18 years ago, and scores 24/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Google Reader Widget?

Google Reader Widget is active on 20+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 15,303 times since it launched in March 2008. It was downloaded 130 times in the last 30 days.

Does Google Reader Widget work with WordPress 7.1?

Google Reader Widget is officially tested up to WordPress 2.7.1, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Google Reader Widget last updated?

The latest version, 1.9.1, was released on March 4, 2009 (18 years ago).

Who makes Google Reader Widget?

Google Reader Widget is developed and maintained by sk33t.

What are the best alternatives to Google Reader Widget?

The most popular alternatives to Google Reader Widget are Site Kit by Google (5M+ installs), Google for WooCommerce (800K+ installs) and GA Google Analytics (400K+ installs).

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